PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. – Everyone at Riviera Country Club is curious to see how Tiger Woods will play as he competes for the first time in an official PGA Tour event since July.
The course isn’t open to spectators for Wednesday’s pro-am at the Genesis Invitational but that didn’t stop a crowd from huddling around the elevated first tee at 6:30 a.m. PT to watch Tiger tee off. Among them: PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan.
Tiger still loves to be a dew sweeper, even on a cold, windy morning that meant bundling up in a black puffy jacket, a blank for his neck and a ski cap. Woods played 16 holes and then called it quits, walking with the amateurs in his group as they played the final two holes. As Rory McIlroy described the day, it was cold, windy and not much to learn.
Tiger Woods of the United States looks on during the pro-am prior to The Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club on February 15, 2023 in Pacific Palisades, California. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
But not if you were Aaron Rai, a 27-year-old Englishman preparing to make his second appearance in the Genesis Invitational. Best-known for wearing two gloves, Rai wasn’t in the pro-am Wednesday and figured the windy conditions wouldn’t make for a quality range session, so he slipped inside the ropes to study the player who helped inspire his love of the game at work.
“He’s been my idol since a very young age,” Rai said. “I have VHS copies of his U.S. Amateur wins and majors from the early 2000s. Me and my dad would watch them 3-4 days a week.”
Rai remembers attending a Tiger golf clinic in London in 2000 or 2001 with his father and the two of them driving to Scotland to watch Tiger play a practice round at the 2014 British Open at Muirfield. Since Rai turned pro, they’ve been in the same field twice: at the 2019 WGC Mexico Championship and last year at the British Open at St. Andrews. Rai said he played about an hour ahead of Woods in the second round and when he turned in his scorecard he circled back and watched Tiger play 17 and 18 and cross the Swilcan Bridge.
On this occasion, Rai took notes and observed how Tiger scouted a course and the shots he hit. Color him impressed.
“It’s just special to be able to see him and watch him and be inside the ropes and see him go about his business. You can see even now why he’s still the greatest of all time,” Rai said. “The shots that he plays, the way that he thinks, you can tell why he’s Tiger…
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