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Arguably nobody had a worse time at this year’s Ryder Cup than Tiger Woods.
Just days after ending a five-year winless drought at the Tour Championship to secure his 80th PGA Tour title, Woods lost all four of the matches he played at Le Golf National in the USA’s 17½-10½ defeat.
That ‘improved’ his overall Ryder Cup record to 13-21-3 – only Phil Mickelson has lost more matches – with a points return of just 39.2%.
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Incredibly, Woods has played in the Ryder Cup eight times – and finished on the winning side only once, at Brookline in 1999.
No wonder he cut a dejected, exhausted figure in the post-match press conference.
Yesterday, he made his first public appearance since the “Pounding In Paris”, when he hosted a clinic ahead of the annual Tiger Woods at Pebble Beach. Naturally, the subject of his poor Ryder Cup performance came up.
“It was just a cumulative effect of the entire season,” explained Woods. “I was tired because I hadn’t trained for it. I hadn’t trained this entire comeback to play this much golf and on top of that deal with the heat and the fatigue and the loss of weight.”
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Despite his rotten record, Woods is widely tipped to be a future Ryder Cup captain, perhaps at Bethpage in 2024.
He’ll get a chance to warm up for that when he skipper the US in next year’s Presidents Cup in Australia. Woods being Woods, he’s toying with the idea of being a playing captain.
“God I hope so,” he said. “I really hope to be a playing captain, I really do.”
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