Fans clustered to watch Tiger Woods practice putting Wednesday at Pebble Beach, but his entourage was noticeably absent.
Among the strange sites on the Pebble Beach practice putting green Wednesday morning was Tiger Woods completely alone. No caddie, no coach, no agent or press attache. It has been a long time since the world’s No. 1 golfer could be found alone at any tournament. Normally, he would be surrounded by a doting entourage that including security. Here, it was just Woods with his putter and four golf balls, working on his game.
In solitude, Woods had to attend to the details himself, things that in the past were done for him by a coach or caddie. That meant retrieving his own balls from the hole or putting his own tees in the ground to do one of his favorite putting drills (the tees are positioned like goal posts so that the putter head barely passes through them during his stroke).
Woods’s fellow competitors mostly gave him a wide berth, leaving him isolated in one corner of the large putting surface. There were seven or eight others practicing in crowded clusters, and then there was Woods, as if separated by an invisible force field.
The youngster from Northern Ireland, Rory McIlroy, looking small and wide-eyed next to the tall, strapping Woods, dared to penetrate Woods’ cloister. He wandered over and made small talk, even slapping Woods on the back as both laughed. But McIlroy retreated after a few minutes and Woods again moved from putt to putt silently and alone.
Stranger still, Woods putted while being watched by about 200 fans, who aimed cameras at him and strained three and four deep against a nearby railing. The dynamic between Woods and golf fans remains complicated and bizarre. In his presence, the fans say nothing -
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