Few early hunters get Tiger's autograph; one gets scolding
Posted Tuesday, August 15, 2006
The sun's first rays and Tiger Woods' first drive simultaneously light up Medinah Country Club about 6 a.m. Monday.
At the same time across the suburbs, hordes of happy "Tiger Hunters" load into shuttle buses that will deliver them into the heart of Woods' jungle.
A handful of fans catch a glimpse of Woods on the second hole. The crowd swells to 300 by the eighth hole. Four hours after his practice begins, Woods walks off the 18th green in front of 5,000 fans.
"We got here at 8:30 to see Tiger, and we saw him," says Ray Borucki of Mundelein as he and his 12-year-old son, Ryan, their mission accomplished, take the shuttle back to their car in Arlington Heights.
As a bonus, Ryan, a first-baseman/pitcher whose baseball team just lost a shot to go to the Little League World Series, captures a handful of autographs of golfers who aren't Tiger. One of them is from that clean-cut, nondescript white guy who seems boring but is a pretty good golfer.
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"I got it," yells 13-year-old Andrew Wundsam of Palatine as he sprints toward his dad, Kurt, clutching a pennant autographed by Olazabal.
"This is the third time I've gone to a practice event. I just love it," Kurt Wundsam says.
Aspiring golfer Samuele Masini, 12, of Mount Prospect, misses out on a Tiger autograph, but he fills his camera's memory with shots of Woods. With a best score of 41 over nine holes, Samuele hopes to be a pro golfer some day.
"I'm trying to keep up with him," says his dad, Paul Masini, whose smile makes it clear that he doesn't mind getting beaten on a golf course by his son.
It's all about golf for Art Schmalz, 71, of Arlington Heights, who doesn't care a whit about photos or autographs.
"I was up early, so I told the wife I was going," says Schmalz, an avid golfer who views the pros as possible teachers. "You try to watch them and see what they are doing - their hands and feet positions."
The Masinis, Wundsams and Boruckis are the norm in this overwhelmingly white, mostly male crowd. They seem happy just to have gotten so close to Woods, gotten a few "lesser" autographs and seen the best golfers on the planet.
Woods mows through the course with a single-minded obsession that carries over when he's not swinging a club. He seems oblivious to the screaming children straining to touch him as he strides past.
When he does sign a half-dozen or so autographs on his way to the clubhouse, a detached Woods plucks a hat from the crowd without looking, scribbles his name on the brim and, still without looking, pushes the hat in the direction it had come with less attention than if he were dropping an empty water bottle in the trash.
Fans note Woods is "working," and few fault him for not signing more.
But Brian Gabriel of Orland Park gets a Tiger Woods autograph and a reprimand.
Gabriel and his buddy Brian Farrell, both 21-year-old golfers, are among the first fans on the course. When they see Woods pose for a photograph with the young daughter of a course worker, the men decide to make their move.
"He (Woods) looked at us like, 'You're kidding me. I get out here at 6 a.m. and people are already here,'æ" recalls Farrell, of Tinley Park.
"I said, 'Hey, Tiger, would you mind signing this for me?' " says Gabriel, who offered a pennant from a Hawaiian tournament. "He signed it, turned away and says, 'No one ever says please anymore.' He said it not in the nicest way."
Nerves, not rudeness, led to the forgotten "please," says Gabriel, who adds, "I said, 'Thanks. I appreciate it.'æ"
An unmoved Woods ignored Gabriel's following apology and, according to the two young men, glared whenever he spotted them at future holes. Fans near Woods report that the golfer moans privately about all the distracting camera flashes, and a security officer confirms suspicions that Woods seems sincerely steamed about Gabriel's manners lapse.
Most fans leave with a photo of Tiger. A lucky few attain his autograph. One gets his goat.
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