Tiger Woods Is Playing Ryder Cup: Europe Says Thank You.

Tiger is playing Ryder Cup. Should Europe be scared?

It’s not a shock to anyone that Tiger Woods made the US Ryder Cup Team. However, it is surprising that the Americans choose a player that has limited succes in Ryder Cup and is in deep crisis. The fact that Woods is playing better now than a month ago, does not make him a pick for the US Team.

The statement that The Ryder Cup team need the number one player in the world is hardly reason enough to pick him for a venue he has participated in losing four times. The US Team without Woods won the Ryder Cup in 2008 as a team, and the team spirit is what wins the Samuel Ryder Trophy. Woods has never been a team player. ‘Play my ball’, ‘Practice when it suits me’, ‘adapt to my habits’, has been some of the Tiger credos in the past Ryder Cups he has attended, and it has weakened the strengths of a team of world class players. Mind you, the Europeans have been strong, but the weakness of the US-team, with Tiger on it, has been significant. While the team usually has several possibilities for great pairings, the question in the media has always been: ‘Who can play with Tiger?’

The US press has all season picked Woods as a potential winner in every tournament he has played in. The reason being, that ‘[Woods] has so-and-so many victories here, and he usually does so-and-so.’ Only problem is, that Tiger Woods as of 2000 or 2008 is not Tiger Woods version 2010. On the other hand, it’s not that long ago that Woods was his old self when talking about the Ryder Cup – a tournament he didn’t care much for. He did not say so in so many words, but asked if he wanted to play, vague answers was given and no one can forget his statement that no one remembers Jack Nicklaus’ stats in the Ryder Cup. Tigers willingness to play Ryder Cup has changed the same way his willingness to talk to the press has, and you do not have to be a marketing consultant to figure out that this probably is a campaign figured out by the people behind Woods like IMG and Nike: Make the guy look good! Start smiling and put up with all the stuff all the other players do.

Tiger Woods has to play Ryder Cup. It is a simple as that. Not because it’s right, but because it creates all the right alibis. First, Captain Corey Pavin would take a big gamble if he chose another player over Woods, because should the US lose, Pavin would be blamed for not taking Woods along. On the other hand Wood do not want to say he don not want to play, because that would not help his popularity. However, it is somewhat obvious that Woods has not been bending over backwards to state his willingness to play. Carefully chosen words have been spoken and things have been toned down. Every player in the world would give a right arm for a sport in the Ryder Cup – and they would not think twice about sending the signal to the captain. Tiger, on the other has, has played a balanced game with statements that could be understood both ways.

One strange thing could happen, though. We could see a humble Tiger, willing to play along and give the team thing a go, and we could see him blossom as we saw Michelle Wie bloom at the Solheim Cup. But Tiger is not on the team because of what might happen. It is, however, unlikely, because it’s not the team factors that make Tigers juices flow. That is not why he was chosen.

It is not a talent, only being able to go your own ways. It is a flaw. A flaw in your personality. And even though the last year has shown us that Tiger is not the person he wanted people to think he was, we still want to be lied to. We even call Woods the world’s best golfer, and while that might be true, it is not a precise description of his place in the golf world in 2010. For more than a year Tiger Woods has not been the best plying golfer in the world, and the fact the official world ranking still claim it, it is a proof that the system is not working. Woods will return and be a great player. Whether he will be as great as before is a question we will have to wait for the answer to. No matter what, it seems the Europeans are the only ones who have realized that Woods will not be a strengthening of the US team. It will be a weakened team being forced to focus on questions from the US press about: ‘How do you think Tiger is doing today?’, ‘How do you think the layout suits Tiger?’, ‘How do you think the wind will suit Tiger?’

Any sane leader would have benched Woods for the good of the team, but the moment Pavin picked Tiger, he was thinking about the good of himself. Paul Azinger had the luxury of not having to pick Tiger or trying to make things work with Tiger on the team. Pavin did not have that choice made for him, but he could have showed some backbone and made it himself. He did not. And for that The US team will suffer the consequences.