A Rude Welcome for Woods

By Thomas Bonk

Sept. 21, 2006 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

STRAFFAN, Ireland —

The last thing Tiger Woods needed before the Ryder Cup was a distraction, but he was clearly in a foul mood Wednesday over nude photographs -- wrongly identified to be of his wife, Elin Nordegren -- that were published in an Irish magazine. The magazine also linked her photographs to pornography sites on the Internet.

The article in the September issue of Dubliner, titled “Ryder Cup Filth for Ireland,” and the fake photograph with Nordegren’s head apparently superimposed on a model, caused Woods to begin his regularly scheduled general media interview with a note of anger.

“My wife, yes, she has been a model prior and she did do some bikini photos, but to link her to porn websites and such is unacceptable, and I do not accept that at all. Neither does our team,” he said. Woods said he and his wife were “very disappointed in how the article was written.”

The article also contained unflattering comments about the wives of Ryder Cup teammates Chad Campbell, David Toms and Jim Furyk.

Woods married Nordegren, from Sweden, nearly two years ago.

The Irish magazine apologized to Woods and the other Ryder Cup players for what it said was inappropriate satire. Woods’ agent at IMG, Mark Steinberg, said he was considering whether to file a lawsuit.

On the course, the main problem here for Woods, when the 36th Ryder Cup matches begin Friday at the rain-soaked and wind-blown K Club, is that his record in the two biggest match-play events in golf doesn’t come close to matching his dominance in tournament play.

With 12 major titles and 53 PGA Tour victories in barely 10 full years as a pro, Woods is virtually untouchable in the regular, mainstream events, but that success ratio hasn’t carried over into the premier match-play tournaments.

This isn’t Superman’s record -- 7-11-2 in the Ryder Cup, and 10-9-1 in the Presidents Cup -- but it is the record that belongs to Woods.

“It’s disappointing,” Woods said. “I’ve always felt like it’s a two-point swing -- winning a point, losing a point, it feels like it’s two points going the wrong way. And, unfortunately, I’ve gone on the wrong end of it too many times.”

Stewart Cink has a theory about Woods’ vulnerability in match play.

“I think the [other] team rises up to play against him,” he said. “They see him, you cut off the head of the dragon, well, he’s the head. He’s our No. 1 player, no question.”

In his checkered Ryder Cup past, Woods has lost to Costantino Rocca. He has halved with Jesper Parnevik. He has lost twice with Phil Mickelson as his partner. His record on the first day, when he plays with a teammate in best ball and alternate shot, is 1-7. He has lost the last seven.

The first matches Friday, weather permitting, are best ball, and Woods seems certain to be paired with Furyk. But Furyk has experienced his own discomfort level in the team portion of the Ryder Cup -- he’s 1-9-1 in best ball and alternate shot.

Furyk is 4-0 in singles in the Ryder Cup, and though Woods is 2-1-1, he hasn’t lost since Rocca beat him in his first Ryder Cup in 1997.

The task of getting Woods on track is his own, and he knows it. Regarded as one of the best amateur match-play performers in history, Woods won three consecutive U.S. Amateurs. But he had no partner, and blending the right player with Woods at this arena and at the Presidents Cup has become as difficult as finding a dry place on the golf course this week.

According to Woods, Furyk is the right choice for a partner. They clicked at the Presidents Cup, and Woods told U.S. captain Tom Lehman that Furyk was the guy he wanted to line up beside him the first two days here.

“Jim and I play the game almost the same way,” Woods said. “I just hit the ball further. Our thought processes, the way we see shots, [is] basically, exactly the same. We read putts the same.

“I just hit the ball a little further than he does off the tee and my irons may be half a club longer, that’s about it.”

Furyk said he could stand up to playing alongside Woods and is more than comfortable with being his partner, even if others might have had problems.

“Obviously you know that when you’re paired with him, you get to see what a day in the life of Tiger Woods is like, and it’s quite a bit different than the most of us, as far as the attention, as far as all of the eyes looking at you,” Furyk said.

It has become part of the U.S. team’s tradition to fall behind quickly in the Ryder Cup’s best ball and alternate shot formats. In 2004, Europe led, 6 1/2 -1 1/2 after the first day and 11-5 after the second, which meant it was already basically over. Europe’s eventual 18 1/2 -9 1/2 victory at Oakland Hills in Bloomfield Township, Mich., was the most lopsided U.S. loss since the matches began in 1927.

The U.S. has won once since 1993, a 14 1/2 -13 1/2 comeback victory at Brookline Country Club in 1999. But even in that one, the U.S. trailed, 6-2, after the first day and had won only four matches (halving four others) after two days -- one of them by Woods and Steve Pate in alternate shot.

Mickelson has been much better than Woods at the team portion of the Ryder Cup, as his 6-6-3 record indicates, but it’s still not even close to that of Europe’s star, Colin Montgomerie, who is 14-8-3 in alternate shot and best ball and has never lost in singles (5-0-2).

Lehman said that as the top two-ranked players in the world, Woods and Mickelson could do a lot of good for the U.S. if they each rang up four or five points.

“I think any time your star players get their points, it’s very positive motivationally for the team,” Lehman said. Arnold Palmer, who played on six Ryder Cup teams and also was a captain, said Woods is ready to turn his record around.

“I think that it’s important that he does that, and I think that if he can arouse the team to support him and show them that he is in a position to do all he can to help them capture the Ryder Cup, that will be very, very important,” Palmer said.

Woods doesn’t admit frustration often, but on the subject of his team match-play record, he makes an exception. You can play well and lose and play mediocre and win, he said. Nothing is guaranteed in match play, except a handshake and a tip of your cap at the end.

“When you play 18 holes, anything can happen,” he said. “Basically, it’s a boat race.”

If it doesn’t start drying out around here, it may really be something like that. Woods can take the driver out of his bag and put an oar in there. What the heck, it might change his luck.

thomas.bonk@latimes.com

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Ryder Cup

THE COURSE

* The K Club (Palmer Course), Straffan, County Kildare, Ireland.

TV SCHEDULE

* Friday, USA, 5 a.m.-3 p.m. PDT

* Saturday, Ch. 4, 5 a.m.-3 p.m. PDT

* Sunday, Ch. 4, 5 a.m.-9 a.m. PDT

TEAM USA

* Captain -- Tom Lehman

* Team members -- Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Chad Campbell, David Toms, Chris DiMarco, Vaughn Taylor, J.J. Henry, Zach Johnson, Brett Wetterich, Stewart Cink, Scott Verplank

TEAM EUROPE

* Captain -- Ian Woosnam

* Team members -- Darren Clarke, Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Sergio Garcia, Padraig Harrington, David Howell, Robert Karlsson, Paul McGinley, Colin Montgomerie, Jose Maria Olazabal, Henrik Stenson, Lee Westwood

RECORDS

Ryder Cup records of top U.S. players:

* Tiger Woods 7-11-2

* Jim Furyk 4-9-2

* Phil Mickelson 9-8-3

* David Toms 4-3-1

Total 24-31-8

Major titles won 17

Ryder Cup records of top European players:

* Colin Montgomerie 19-8-5

* Sergio Garcia 10-3-2

* Jose Maria Olazabal 15-8-5