Zhenghou, China …
It was a production to match the multi Academy Award winning movie – Ben Hur.
We have been to countless golf tournaments and witnessed much fanfare but nothing to match the remarkalbe and bizarre sights along with the sounds of ‘The Duel at Jinsha Lake’.
Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy had touched down the night prior with Woods flying-in from Kuala Lumpur where he was fourth in the CIMB Classic while McIlroy jetted-in from Shanghai after finishing runner-up in the inaugural BMW Masters.
However little did they expect the reception waiting for their fleet of Bentley’s upon arrival at the Jinsha Lake Golf Club in suburban Zhenghou.
Two lines of Chinese military pesonnel were standing to attention the front gates. Then once inside there was literally thousands milling around the cluhouse with dozens of young girls dressed in white evening gowns, and referred as ‘Protocol Girls’, there to add to the colour.
Woods and McIlroy made their way onto the stage as fireworks exploded and then after all the introductions Woods and McIlroy left their handprint in a gold coloured cast that were then presented to Feng Changge, Chairman of the Harmony Group of companies who has put up the appearance money for Woods and McIlroy to be present today in Zhenghou.
As they handed over their ‘golden’ hand prints the sky filled with gold pieces of paper.
And all this before 10am local time and more than two hours before Woods and McIloy were due to tee up.
A Chinese military officer guards over Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods at the opening ceremony to the ‘Duel at Lake Jinsha’. (Photo – www.golffile.ie)
McIlroy joined Woods on the practice range but fans quickly broke the security cordon forcing officials into damage control mode.
The fans formed their own guard of honour down the range.
Once the players headed the practice putting green many fans fought over each other to pocket the Nike practice balls.
Yes, Nike golf balls.
This is October 2012 and with McIlroy still some two months shy of being rummoured to join Woods in becoming a Nike Staff player, and with further rumours his debut event under the Nike banner would be at the 2013 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
Feng Changge, Chairman of the Harmony Group of companies (wearing a Jack Nicklaus cap) with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
But back to the bizarre scenes at Jinska Lake Golf Club.
Never had we withnessed the sight of so many iPads and mobile phones present at a golf tournament. Maybe this was a sign of things to come once the mobile phone invasion took hold.
There was also the very distracting sight of a European-born looking model dressed in black evening dress standing on the 12th tee but one wonders if McIlroy and Woods could recall she was promoting Van Klaren necklaces.
The bizarre sights and sounds continued right up to the presentation with spectators taking photos from the edge of the green as Woods was putting out.
Models fram the presentattion ceremony on October 2012 at the Duel at Jinsha Lake in China. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
Then an official pushed through the throng to hand Woods’ manager, Mark Steinberg a silver tray containing some six apples and two boxes of takeaway fried chicken for his star client who hadn’t had lunch.
Woods said he’d relish the chance to take on McIlroy more often to create a rivalry at the top of the game similar to the one between Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray that have made men’s tennis so exciting in recent years.
“If you look at the history of the game, it’s not like other sports where the guys play against each other all the time. Jack (Nicklaus) and Arnold (Palmer) didn’t go at it that often,” Woods said. “But you know what, if we can do this for the next 10, 15 years, then certainly we can have that type of rivalry.
“I think having matches like this to promote the game of golf is what it’s all about. We’re trying to promote the game of golf in this region and it’s come a long way since my first time here 11 years ago.”
