Tiger Woods gives task force one shot to fix U.S. Ryder Cup woes

Tiger Woods has no intention of making a career of his work on the newly formed Ryder Cup task force.

Part of the 11-member panel that will reportedly meet for the first time next week, Woods made it clear he expected the group to be a one-off.

“I think our job going forward is so we only have this task force once,” Woods told reporters Tuesday ahead of his return to competition at this week’s Hero World Challenge. “It’s to create a matrix and create a process going forward so everyone is happy with the selection process, not only the players, but the captain, assistant captains ... Going forward, it’s not going to serve just one Ryder Cup but all future Ryder Cups.

Woods said he never expected Ryder Cup issues to be so dire that a commission would have to convene to fix them, but anticipated the board would do its job and move on.

“So we can only do this once,” Woods concluded. “If we do our job correctly, we’re only going to have this once.”

Woods was rehabbing his back at home in Florida when the European squad pummeled the Americans, 16.5-11.5, at Gleneagles. All hell broke loose following the post-defeat press conference, during which Phil Mickelson took an indirect jab at the leadership of U.S. skipper Tom Watson.

While conceding he had only “secondary” knowledge of how things went down under Watson’s captaincy, Woods, just as obliquely, backed Mickelson in the flap that resulted in the PGA of America forming the task force.

“I wasn’t part of the team. So I don’t know. I only know a few things that happened within the team room from certain players and caddies,” Woods said. “But a lot of the guys just weren’t happy with it.”

PGA officials had hoped to kick off the the committee’s first meeting this week in Orlando, with several of those on the task force -- Woods, Rickie Fowler, Steve Stricker, and Jim Furyk (until he withdrew in favor of Patrick Reed) -- in the field at Isleworth, according to GolfChannel.com.