Rory McIlroy may have preferred “a quiet couple of days” to start the Genesis Open, but the four-time major champion will have anything but that as he’ll have to deal with the traveling circus that follows playing partner Tiger Woods’ every move.
Tiger Woods fan Rory McIlroy relishes going head to head with idol at Riviera
Rory and Tiger renew their rivalry this week at the Genesis Open.
”There’s a lot of movement around,” McIlroy told ESPN.com about the bedlam outside the ropes that accompanies the game’s most popular golfer and those along for the ride.
The key to managing the rumpus that can easily distract newbies to the Tiger-inspired tumult is to get to the tee first, according to McIlroy.
”You just try and get the honor as quick as you can and try to keep it so not everyone’s moving when you’re [swinging],” he said, referring to the mass migration of fans to the next viewing area after Woods hits his shot.
McIlroy will join Woods and Justin Thomas in the marquee threesome for at least the first two rounds of this week’s PGA Tour tilt at Riviera. It’s a spot he’s used to and certainly savors.
”I’ve been a Tiger fan for the last 20 years,” McIlroy said. “I think anyone who is maybe my age and even a little bit older and a little bit younger was inspired by him because of what he did on the golf course and how he approached the game. He was golf for the better part of a decade, if not more. So it’s cool to have been able to get to know him and call him a friend.”
For sure, if anyone can handle the Woods whirlwind, it’s McIlroy. After all, the 28-year-old Ulsterman has appeared under the Big Top often, starting with his first head-to-head matchup with the Big Cat at the 2010 Chevron World Challenge.
Woods came out on top in that slugfest, firing a 66 to McIlroy’s 70 — a heavyweight bout Rory remembers well.
”I was playing pretty good and sort of trying to keep alongside of him, especially at that point you’re looking at everything he does so you know exactly what score he’s on, what score you’re on,” McIlroy said. “I doubled the last for 2-under and he birdied the last for 66, so it was pretty close up until that little three-shot swing at the end.”
Woods has prevailed in most of their subsequent meetings, besting McIlroy 11 times in the 16 PGA and European Tour rounds SB Nation unofficially estimates the pair has duked it out in since. Rory owns five of the better rounds and they have played to a tie once, in the second round of the 2013 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, in which each shot an unimpressive 75.
Of late, however, McIlroy has come out on top, going 63-70 to Woods’ 68-73 in the first two rounds of the 2013 Dubai Desert Classic, and finishing strong at the 2015 Masters with a 66 to Woods’ 73.
This time, both superstars are making comebacks from injuries — McIlroy from a fractured rib he suffered at the start of the 2017 season and that forced him to miss some time last year. Since returning to competition, he earned a T3 at January’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, was runner-up at the Dubai Desert Classic, and missed the cut at last week’s Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
Tiger, at 42, is making his second official start of the year after undergoing his fourth back surgery, a lumbar fusion, in April. He finished T23 at last month’s Farmers Insurance Open and will navigate a track this week on which he made his tour debut as a 16-year-old amateur and on which he has never won.
“I love the golf course, it fits my eye and I play awful,” Woods said during a Tuesday press conference. “It’s just one of those weird things. It’s a fader’s golf course for a righty. A lot of the holes, you hit nice soft cuts and I used to love to hit nice soft cuts, and for some reason I just didn’t play well.”
He also made it clear that, while he may have invited reigning PGA champ Thomas to hitch a ride to the tourney aboard his private jet, the conviviality ends at the first tee.
“Hey, I’m trying to win a tournament,” Woods said. “It’s winning time.”
As for McIlroy, though he won’t be able to ease into the competition, he looked forward to a potential shootout and the probable drama that goes along with any Woods outing.
“Any time you have a chance to play in a group like that you relish it and embrace it,” he said. “It’s fine. It’s good fun. I would rather be in this group than not.”
Woods could not agree more, though he hoped to see McIlroy again on Sunday for all the marbles.
“That’s something we pray to have happen,” said Tiger.
No doubt, tourney organizers and fans alike are appealing to the golf gods for the same outcome, though defending champion and world No. 1 Dustin Johnson may have something to say about that.
The power trio goes off No. 10 on Thursday at 10:22 a.m. ET, and No. 1 at 3:02 p.m. on Friday. Here’s the full tee sheet for the opening round (all times ET):
Off No. 1:
9:40 a.m. — Charlie Beljan, John Huh, J.J. Spaun
9:50 a.m. — Keegan Bradley, Tom Hoge, Andrew Landry
10:01 a.m. — Harris English, Parker McLachlin, Thomas Pieters
10:11 a.m. — Graeme McDowell, Smylie Kaufman, Luke Donald
10:22 a.m. — Chris Stroud, Aaron Baddeley, Jim Herman
10:32 a.m. — Jimmy Walker, Charley Hoffman, Shane Lowry
10:43 a.m. — Cody Gribble, Charl Schwartzel, Brian Gay
10:53 a.m. — Pat Perez, James Hahn, Padraig Harrington
11:04 a.m. — Austin Cook, Branden Grace, Paul Casey
11:14 a.m. — Kevin Streelman, Luke List, Aaron Wise
11:25 a.m. — Scott Stallings, Morgan Hoffmann, Michael Kim
11:35 a.m. — Sam Saunders, Rob Oppenheim, Scottie Scheffler
2:20 p.m. — Martin Laird, Jason Kokrak, Francesco Molinari
2:30 p.m. — Nick Taylor, Peter Uihlein, Brandon Harkins
2:41 p.m. — Retief Goosen, Ollie Schniederjans, Beau Hossler
2:51 p.m. — Ted Potter, Jr., Kyle Stanley, Jonas Blixt
3:02 p.m. — Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Kevin Chappell
3:12 p.m. — Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott, Bubba Watson
3:23 p.m. — Billy Horschel, Cameron Smith, Vijay Singh
3:33 p.m. — Xander Schauffele, Wesley Bryan, Alex Noren
3:44 p.m. — Martin Flores, Kevin Tway, Hao Tong Li
3:54 p.m. — Camilo Villegas, Scott Brown, Kelly Kraft
4:05 p.m. — Brice Garnett, Adam Schnek, Cameron Champ
4:15 p.m. — Ben Silverman, Zecheng Dou, Seunghyuk Kim
Off No. 10:
9:40 a.m. — Matt Every, John Merrick, Andrew Loupe
9:50 a.m. — Geoff Ogilvy, Derek Fathauer, Harold Varner III
10:01 a.m. — David Lingmerth, Tyrone Van Aswegen, C.T. Pan
10:11 a.m. — Bryson DeChambeau, Billy Hurley III, K.J. Choi
10:22 a.m. — Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods
10:32 a.m. — Matt Kuchar, Phil Mickelson, Tommy Fleetwood
10:43 a.m. — Brendan Steele, Greg Chalmers, Sangmoon Bae
10:53 a.m. — William McGirt, Brian Stuard, Charles Howell III
11:04 a.m. — Ryan Moore, Bill Haas, Chez Reavie
11:14 a.m. — Chad Campbell, Shawn Stefani, Dominic Bozzelli
11:25 a.m. — Kevin Na, Anirban Lahiri, Jon Curran
11:35 a.m. — Abraham Ancer, Xinjun Zhang, Richard H. Lee
2:20 p.m. — J.B. Holmes, Robert Streb, Sean O’Hair
2:30 p.m. — J.J. Henry, Lucas Glover, Ryan Blaum
2:41 p.m. — Cameron Tringale, Bud Cauley, Martin Piller
2:51 p.m. — Marc Leishman, Adam Hadwin, Peter Malnati
3:02 p.m. — Ryan Armour, Tony Finau, Ernie Els
3:12 p.m. — Jhonattan Vegas, Vaughn Taylor, Martin Kaymer
3:23 p.m. — D.A. Points, Jim Furyk, Rafa Cabrera Bello
3:33 p.m. — Daniel Berger, Si Woo Kim, Fabian Gomez
3:44 p.m. — Jamie Lovemark, Sung Kang, Patrick Rodgers
3:54 p.m. — Troy Merritt, Danny Lee, Whee Kim
4:05 p.m. — Nicholas Lindheim, Talor Gooch, Stephan Jaeger
4:15 p.m. — Jonathan Randolph, Tyler Duncan, Vinnie Poncino
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