Could we see Tiger Woods sooner than expected? Jim Furyk certainly hopes so

Presidents Cup captain Jim Furyk says he wants Tiger Woods on his US leadership team.

While Woods, who has only teed up in five events this year and hasn’t played since The Open in July, will be back for the Hero World Challenge and PNC Championship just this side of Christmas, Furyk hopes he will make the trip to Montreal as his team looks to extend its unbeaten streak to 26 years.

Of course, Woods was the victorious captain in 2019 when the Americans ran out 16-14 winners over their international rivals at Royal Melbourne, and he was widely expected to take the Ryder Cup job before deciding he has too much to do in his new PGA Tour role.

Furyk, though, is hoping he can twist Woods’ arm.

“I’ll reach out to Tiger,” he said in a Q&A with Golfweek.

“I think we all kind of expected that he was going to be named Ryder Cup captain. I know he’s got his plate full with the PGA Tour and working on our board, which seems to be a lot of work at the moment.

“So I’ll reach out, say ‘hello’. I know he’s got some great strategy. He’s got some great stuff with pairings, but as of yet I haven’t reached out.”

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It could be that Furyk is keen to ask the 15-time major champion to help with the conundrum that is Keegan Bradley.

After Woods’ snub, Bradley was the PGA of America’s surprise pick to lead the Ryder Cup team at Bethpage next year and Furyk later offered him a vice-captaincy role in Canada. Bradley then started playing some of the golf of his life and there is every chance he ends up making both teams.

“That’s a road we’ll cross when I get there. We’ll wait and see who the picks are. Let’s not put the cart before the horse. I’ve got a plan of what I want to do, I just don’t want to talk about it that in-depth, how’s that?”

But that didn’t prevent Furyk being full of praise for Bradley.

“You can see the passion in Keegan’s eyes,” he added. “You can hear it in his voice, whether it’s about a Presidents Cup or Ryder Cup or just on a daily basis. He brings a lot of energy.

“I think when you kind of round out your team, all your captains kind of have a role and a position and I think for him I expect it’ll be a learning experience for him but he brings a lot to the table he knows these guys.

“He’s playing not only week in and week out as he playing out on PGA Tour he’s playing an extremely high level and he’s playing with these guys quite often so he knows their games very well and he brings a lot to the table for our team.”

Furyk and his opposite number, Mike Weir, will name their captains’ picks later on Tuesday.

Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im, Adam Scott, Tom Kim, Jason Day and Byeong Hun An qualified automatically for the hosts, while Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa, Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay and Sahith Theegala have already booked their tickets for the US side.

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Alex Perry is the Associate Editor of bunkered. A journalist for more than 20 years, he has been a golf industry stalwart for the majority of his career and, in a five-year spell at ESPN, covered every sporting event you can think of. He completed his own Grand Slam at the 2023 Masters, having fallen in love with the sport at his hometown club of Okehampton and on the links of nearby Bude & North Cornwall.

Associate Editor