Tiger Woods is buried and U.S. might be also in Ryder Cup

It has finally come to this for Tiger Woods. His Ryder Cup captain, Corey Pavin, has rendered him irrelevant, without a word of explanation.

Pavin has become a master at not explaining. He wears that like a badge of honor.

While his counterpart, Colin Montgomerie, takes us along on his daily passionate roller coaster through this prestigious international golf event, Pavin carries on with stiff upper lip. Questions are deflected. Defeat is not defeat until it is official. The pasting his team took Sunday is not a negative, but a motivation. Tomorrow will always be a better day. Hope springs eternal.

Pavin is friendly in his evasiveness. Non-answers come with a smile.

As unhappy as that makes the media here, what Pavin did with his singles pairings for Monday’s showdown needed no elaboration. His action, stunning as it was, told all.

He hid Tiger Woods in his lineup. Buried him. Made him an afterthought.

After Sunday, Team USA was trailing in the Ryder Cup, 91/2 points to 61/2. All Europe needed was to win five matches. Logic said that you put your best guys on the tee early. You can’t afford to get any further behind. You front-load your lineup and hope to keep things alive.

That’s what Montgomerie did, and he even admitted it. He has his big guns up first. And when he saw where Pavin had put Woods, as well as second-ranked Phil Mickelson, Montgomerie struggled to avoid saying what was obvious.

He was asked, “I presume if you have the world No. 1 and the world No. 2, you would not have put them in a position where they might be irrelevant?”

Montgomerie paused, then answered: “I’m trying to be as diplomatic as possible throughout the week, and I continue to be that way. It does surprise me that match 8 and match 10 contain 1 and 2 in the world, but at the same time, it is a very, very — and let me say this, very strong American lineup, same as ours. The job has not been done yet.”

With his action, Pavin said what many remain in denial about. Woods isn’t Woods anymore. Not even close. He may return someday; probably will. But this has been the ultimate lost year for him, and everybody was wrong who theorized that he was so mentally focused on the golf course that he could block out his personal mess. Yes, he won two matches here in team play, but partner Steve Stricker may need back surgery from carrying Woods when he gets back home.

Woods is golf’s Reggie Jackson, the straw that stirred the drink of a sport that, had he not been around for the last 15 years, might have become beach volleyball. That’s why, all of those in golf have tiptoed around the issue from the moment he wrecked his car in his driveway. We’ll get our old Tiger back, they said, hoping as much as believing. Time will heal all.

Pavin, with no time left, demonstrated that the healing would have to be done on somebody else’s time.

By the time most read this, it will be clear if Pavin’s move worked, or even mattered. The Europeans stormed the course again Sunday, got 51/2 of a possible six points, got their fans all jacked up to come back again — the first Monday finish in a Ryder Cup — and appear to be jazzed to complete the job they were so heavily favored to do.

The best circumstance for Pavin is that his early players keep it going, Woods’ match actually matters, and he sinks some putts. That would allow Pavin to say the No. 8 spot was strategy, not lost faith.

Mickelson at No. 10 is less earth-shaking, less significant. He set a record for most career losses by an American in Ryder Cup play Sunday, and appears to have a fondness for this event like one has a fondness for bed bugs. Woods is still burning, still trying to fire, to figure it out. Mickelson is swinging and walking.

Currently, the top two players in the world are not Woods and Mickelson. The computer lags behind the reality. The top two, Lee Westwood and Stricker, were to tee off first. Montgomerie followed with phenom Rory McIlroy and steady-as-a-rock Luke Donald. After Stricker, Pavin countered with his second-best player here, Stewart Cink, and veteran Jim Furyk.

Montgomerie said he had to match the first three U.S. players with his own strength. That Woods was not in that group was not mentioned.

Woods has been involved in many great moments in sports. But stepping up to the first tee to play Francesco Molinari more than an hour after the bright lights go on and the drums roll is not likely to be another one.

There is always the chance that the drama that always found Woods will do so again, that he becomes part of a wild-and-crazy comeback by Team USA.

Then Pavin could say I told you so. He wouldn’t, of course.

bill.dwyre@latimes.combill.dwyre@latimes.com