Ryder Cup Not a Major Factor for Woods

So, what’s really at stake next week when the United States plays Europe at the Ryder Cup? It’s a long list, but you’ve got to start somewhere, so here goes ...

Which team will have the best shirts and which shirts will cause eyestrain?

Whose captain is better, the grinning Louisianan, Hal Sutton, or the detached Rhinelander, Bernhard Langer?

Were the right captain’s picks guys such as Jay Haas, who hasn’t won in 11 years, and Colin Montgomerie, who is winless in the last two?

Are the greens at Oakland Hills Country Club really going to be as hard as the runways at Detroit Metropolitan Airport?

How will that Chris Riley-David Howell showdown work out?

Did either side try to push any adoption papers through on Vijay Singh at the last minute?

Does Tiger Woods need a good Ryder Cup to rescue his year, his reputation and his self-respect?

Sure, there are a bunch of plots, subplots, scenarios and story lines associated with the biennial match-play showdown between the U.S. and Europe, but according to Jack Nicklaus, there’s simply no way you can lump a Tiger redemption factor into the mix.

“As far as Tiger’s year, the Ryder Cup won’t make any difference,” Nicklaus said. “He just hasn’t won a major. He probably hasn’t played his best, but nobody can do that all the time anyway.”

It’s true that Woods didn’t have a great year, but it’s also hard to remember when he didn’t. Woods has won the player-of-the-year award the last five years, the scoring title the last five years and the money title four of the last five years.

Singh appears certain to replace Woods as player of the year and also win his second consecutive money title. That’s the result of Woods’ ordinary play, by his standards. Seven players have won more tournaments than Woods this year and even though much has been made of his winless streak in majors, which has reached 10, it’s also true it has been almost seven months since he won a tournament, and that wasn’t a stroke-play event.

Whatever happens at the Ryder Cup isn’t going to change that. So far, Woods hasn’t particularly distinguished himself in the competition. His record is 5-8-2, and even Nicklaus acknowledges that it’s not so hot, although he said Woods is probably having the same problem he had.

Nicklaus played in six Ryder Cup matches but only one of them against players from all of Europe, in 1981. The other five times the matches were against Britain and Ireland and Nicklaus and the U.S. never lost.

The matches were never really a challenge, Nicklaus said. The main thrill for a U.S. player was the privilege of making the team, not playing the matches, he said.

For that reason, Nicklaus (who has 18 major titles to Woods’ eight) said he thinks he knows where Woods is coming from.

“I can understand Tiger for not getting too worked up for the Ryder Cup,” said Nicklaus, who was at his course Wednesday in Aliso Viejo to promote his Heart & Stroke Challenge tournament to raise awareness about cardiovascular illness.

The pursuit of majors is what Woods is all about, Nicklaus said, and as great an event as the Ryder Cup may be, it does nothing to get him any closer to his goal of another major championship victory.

Besides, Nicklaus said, while most of the other players on either side must raise the level of their games simply to make the team, that’s not a factor for Woods. So it is a mental game as well, Nicklaus pointed out. In a team event such as the Ryder Cup, Woods is not really focused on being “top dog,” as Nicklaus called it, which makes it harder for him to get up for the matches.

When it’s over, the Ryder Cup is still going to be all about good will, not a referendum on Woods, according to Nicklaus.

“It’s about bragging rights, for two years,” he said. “It’s not for the crown of the world. Let’s remember that.”