By CHRIS RATTUE
You can walk in the shadow of greatness, and not get to see a lot of it.
That's golf, and when the greatness is Tiger Woods, you can get to see even less.
There were nearly 10,000 people at the Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club yesterday, and a fair swag of them had come to see just one person at the practice round for the New Zealand Open.
For their $40, each punter got a full view of Tiger now and then, but often you couldn't see the Woods for your fees.
As Woods, his New Zealand caddie, Steve Williams, a few policemen and five security men with wiggly wires connecting their ears to whatever might lie beneath their green shirts shuffled through a group of spectators, one man yelled in absolute triumph.
You have seen Woods win majors and make less noise than this bloke, who had produced a Jonah-like fend on the opposition while holding a camera aloft and clicking in one motion.
"YEEEEEES, I got the back of his head," he announced to the Wellington region.
That's a fairly expensive headshot but at least Photoman will be able to prove in years to come how close he got to greatness. Unless, of course, his aim was not true and the evidence will be a blurry photo of a head with a wiggly wire.
Photoman would have had an even tougher time snapping the practice partner who trailed around with Woods - trailed by about 50 metres per drive, that is.
Among the entourage that trooped up the back nine holes was the incredibly non-famous Bob Garza, who is touched by greatness in that he knows Williams.
Garza, who gets a sponsor's invitation into the Open, is a club professional from Oregon who was extremely nervous as he stood on the 10th tee after shaking the hand of his partner.
"I really appreciate it," Woods had been told by Garza, who has a stature that put him at about eye level with the tiger and kiwi wood covers in the bag his mate Williams is lugging around the links course.
All the golfers steer well clear of left on the short, 284-metre par four 10th, and Bob proved especially good at that, landing his drive on top of a right-side hospitality tent. The ball then bounced into the middle of the fairway.
Spectators already wondering who he was suddenly realised that Garza might be some lucky golf hacker happy to thrash around portable toilets and under grandstands while his partner, the world number one, tested those things called fairways.
Garza proved to be better than that, and ruined a good story, although he still seemed invisible around greatness, especially as a TV cameraman charged between golfer and caddie when they were all of a metre apart. He wouldn't do that to Tiger and Steve.
"I'm not used to anybody watching me play," Garza said afterwards.
"All the commotion that surrounds Tiger ... it's off-putting but he doesn't seem to notice."
Spectators don't see all the shots either. At your Joe Average New Zealand Open it can be tough enough on the final days unless you plot a perfect course to the ropes.
This week will be even tougher unless you are a media type and get a yellow armband big enough for Hercules that allows you to trail behind Woods up the middle of fairways.
Or you could be Williams' 13-year-old nephew, Josh Verity, and his oversized backpack from Katikati, whom the caddie ushered into the main party yesterday.
Josh didn't even need an armband, and wandered around with one of the most famous people on earth as if he was on your average schoolday trip.
The alternative to battling the masses will be to park up on one of the grandstands at key holes, but there will be thousands more than prepared to do the mobile crowd thing even on Saturday and Sunday at $170 a pop.
You might only see a famous cap, and a whirring clubhead.
But still, you got close to greatness.
Emergency services were alerted to the fire at Anawhata Beach, near Piha, about 5.30pm.