Ryder Cup: Why Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker May Not Be the Best Pairing

Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker went 4-0 at last year’s President's Cup at Harding Park Golf Course.

Their personalities and golf games complement each other, and they genuinely seem to enjoy playing together.

After more than a decade of struggling to find a suitable Ryder Cup partner for the No. 1 player in the world, Stricker appears to be the obvious choice to play four consecutive team matches with Woods this week at Celtic Manor.

However, there’s just one problem with that logic: Woods and Stricker are not the same players they were last year at Harding Park.

Woods has had just two top-10 finishes this year, and Stricker, believe it or not, has been struggling with his putter for several weeks now.

The reason why the Woods/Stricker pairing was so successful at the 2009 President's Cup had more to do with Stricker than it did with Woods.

Woods came up with some big shots in clutch situations, as he always seems to do, but it was Stricker’s putter that carried the duo to a 4-0 record.

While Woods was nothing more than average on the greens at Harding Park, Stricker made everything he saw, which brought more than a few smiles to Woods’ steely face.

Although Woods and Stricker may have a strong record when playing together in the past, what you have in these two players at the moment is one man—Woods—who cannot find a fairway, and another man—Stricker—who cannot find the bottom of the cup.

We all know how streaky Woods’ putter has been of late.  If Stricker’s putting woes carry into the Ryder Cup, these two guys might not make anything further than a tap-in at Celtic Manor.

The best partner for Woods at the moment has to be Jim Furyk.

Furyk is not only incredibly accurate off the tee and with his long irons, but he also possesses arguably the hottest putter of any player in the Ryder Cup this week.

Furyk tied for 10th in putts per round and was first in putts per green in regulation en route to his victory last week at the Tour Championship.

Similar to Stricker, Furyk and Woods are also fairly close; well, as close as anyone can be to Woods.

Woods and Furyk play numerous practice rounds together, and Furyk is one of the few guys on tour that can actually needle Woods and get away with it.

The thing with team competitions is that past success doesn’t necessarily equate to future success.

For the Americans, team matches are played just once per year, and as we have seen time and time again, a player’s game can change drastically within a 12-months span.

Woods and Stricker are not the same two players they were at last year’s President's Cup, and treating them as if they are could be a fatal mistake this week at Celtic Manor.

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