Selfie shots with Woods and McIlroy are the winner in Mission Hills madness

Tigermania? Macca Madness? We need a word for the celeb-fuelled hysteria that gripped fans at Mission Hills Haikou on Monday as Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy played a second exhibition in China - escaping unscathed from the smartphone-wielding masses.

McIlroy won by a stroke with a six-under-par 67, not that anyone was bothered. The important numbers for Woods and McIlroy were on the cheques: the reported appearance fee was at least US$1.5 million each. The day before, McIlroy earned about US$67,000 after tying for 27th at the BMW Masters in Shanghai.

For fans, the day's purpose was to fill WeChat and Weibo with photos of the stars, ideally one or both in the background of a peace-sign selfie. Every shot was hit to a sub-Brian Eno ambient symphony of bleeps and bloops and artificial shutter clicks, fans "watching" through screens rather than eyeballs.

At last year's "Duel at Jinsha Lake" in Zhengzhou, the crowd's behaviour bordered on farcical, with nouveau-riche excess displayed around the course. The rematch was far more restrained in the latter regard - albeit the trophy was a 400,000 yuan (HK$509,550) giant jade golf ball - and the galleries were just about contained by overstretched and underexperienced stewards.

Organisers said around 13,000 attended, which seemed a high estimate. "We have to control it," a member of the organising staff was heard to say on the second green, and a colleague admitted: "I just don't want to see anyone get hurt."

Head to toe in designer gear, the VIPs and tai-tais were ready to step in should Woods or McIlroy have pulled up lame; they naturally assumed the yellow ropes could not possibly apply to them.