This Riviera Neighbor Blows Off Some Steam

The sound of an air horn at a golf tournament signals a stoppage in play and warns players of bad weather ... unless it’s Thursday at Riviera Country Club.

From the backyard of her home above the 13th hole, Gabriella Boyd sounded her air horn many times during the first round when the pros were on the green, causing some confusion and igniting a mini-controversy.

Boyd said she was firing off her air horn in protest because some on-course generators just below her house were being turned on at 4 a.m.

“We’re sleep-deprived,” she said. “It’s frustrating. It’s pretty disrespectful. We’ve attempted to cooperate.

“I guess they were just blowing air at us.”

And so she returned the favor. The Boyds, Gabriella and Mike, have lived in the house above the 13th hole for three years and have had problems with the generators coming on for two years. They were not home during one tournament.

“We were trying to get the attention of the Nissan Open, which is ignoring us this year and last year,” she said.

Boyd said there had been an agreement that the generators would be switched off at 10 p.m. and turned on again at 6 a.m.

Michael Yamaki, the general manager at Riviera, said the situation should be corrected.

“Eventually we’ll have to deal with her,” he said. “She can’t intentionally do stuff like that. It’s too bad. You don’t want to have bad relationships with neighbors.”

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Jim Gormley was playing in his first PGA Tour event and he wasn’t within striking distance of the lead at any time, but he managed to draw one of the largest galleries of the afternoon.

Gormley is the head professional at Palos Verdes Country Club. He got into the Nissan Open through a qualifier and shot even-par 71 in front of a gallery of about 200 friends, family and club members.

“It was amazing to see that there were that many of them,” Gormley said. “I was blown away when I walked up to the tee this afternoon.”

The crowd was quite vocal at times, cheering loudly for anything close to a good shot. Consecutive birdies on his 16th and 17th holes drew roars that could be heard throughout the mostly empty course in the late afternoon.

When Gormley saw the size of the gallery, he immediately apologized in advance to his playing partners, Bill Haas and Nick Watney.

“I apologized to Bill and Nick right away,” Gormley said. “I said ‘I’m sorry, I can’t control them.’ ”

Gormley, who played the Canadian Tour for a year in 1997, said making the cut is his goal. When play was suspended -- he was in the last group that finished -- he was right on the cut line.

“Even par is not a bad score,” he said. “I know I’m capable of playing better, but it’s hard not to take that.”

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Nissan North America has extended its title sponsorship of the Nissan Open through 2010. Nissan, which started out as a presenting sponsor of the Los Angeles Open in 1987, became the title sponsor in 1989 and the tournament was called the Nissan Los Angeles Open. In 1995, the name was changed again to the Nissan Open.

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Duffy Waldorf, who is playing with a sponsor’s exemption, finished with a one-under 70 that could have been a lot better -- he was four under at one point. Waldorf, 43, was 153rd on the money list last year, which means his best way of getting into tournaments is with sponsor’s exemptions.

“That’s why these weeks are important,” he said.

Waldorf missed the cut at the Bob Hope and at Phoenix and tied for 27th at Pebble Beach, earning $37,530. He’s playing at Tucson next week, but after that, Waldorf doesn’t know his schedule.

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At last year’s Booz Allen Classic, Rory Sabbatini caused a stir when he walked off the green while his playing partner, Ben Crane, was still putting, to protest slow play. So there was Sabbatini last week at Pebble Beach, content to play six-hour rounds, and armed with a new peace of mind about pace of play.

He carries his own yardage book, to match the one carried by his caddie, Kevin Fasbender. Sabbatini said it’s simply a tool he uses so he doesn’t get ahead of himself.

“The idea is to slow myself down,” Sabbatini said.