Tiger Woods still wants to make Ryder Cup team as playing captain

Tiger Woods, who has made public such private information as a third back surgery that had him bed-ridden, has perhaps, without fanfare, begun practicing again with the hope of making the Ryder Cup as a playing vice captain.

This from 2016 U.S. captain Davis Love III, who on Wednesday named Woods one of four assistants for next year’s contest. Love also hinted that the fifth, as yet unfilled, vice captain’s spot was Phil Mickelson’s if he wanted it but that Lefty had his sights set on being a full-fledged player at Hazeltine.

“I talked to [Woods] several times over the last several weeks about his back, how he’s feeling, how he’s playing — or how he’s practicing,” Love said during a press conference ahead of this week’s PGA Tour event, the RSM Classic. “He wants to make the team, don’t mistake, that’s his No. 1 goal, but he’s also committed to helping me do whatever we can to get ready.”

A statement from Woods, a playing veteran of seven Ryder Cups and eight President Cups, echoed Love’s pronouncement.

“I will continue to do whatever I can to help win the Cup back,” Tiger said on his website. “Once I’m fully healthy, I’d like to try to make the team too, but either way, I’m very excited to work with Davis, the other vice captains and the players to get a U.S. victory.”

Woods underwent his third procedure in October to “relieve discomfort” from a second microdiscectomy he had in September (got that?). At the time that he announced he had gone under the knife yet again, he said via his website that there was no timetable for his return to competition. So learning that the winner of 14 major championships was back on the putting green and/or driving range took many in the golf world by surprise.

Golf Channel commentators discussed Woods’ practicing status matter-of-factly, though Love later walked back a bit on his statement, telling SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio that Woods was “anxious to chip right now. He’s walking on the beach trying to get in shape and he’s anxious to get back to playing.”

Whether DL3 misspoke or Woods had indeed at least picked up a putter, Capt. Davis made it clear what Tiger’s objective was.

“His goal, I think, right now is he wants to play and be a vice captain,” he said during his presser. “Tiger wants to be the leader [of his group, or pod], but he wants to do it from the golf course. He doesn’t want to be the general sitting in the room; he wants to be in the battle.”

While Love deemed Woods “very capable” of playing a dual role, he emphasized that Mickelson had a singular aim. After going 3-0-1 at the Presidents Cup earlier this year, Lefty told PC vice captain Love he would “‘help in any way I can but I’m going to focus on making the team.’”

Love threw his support behind both players’ desires to be among the 12 guys hoping to break a string of three straight Ryder Cup losses to the Europeans but suggested he would keep a seat on the sidelines warm for the five-time major winner.

Mickelson, like Woods, has experienced a rough couple of years on the course. And though his world rankings decline has been far less precipitous than that of Tiger, who is now ranked 384th, earlier this month he fell out of the top 25 for the first time in 20 years. His position (27th) is the lowest since he was 26th in 1995.

“We have an open pick, we have another guy, so who that guy’s going to be I don’t know,” said Love. “We’ll talk to Phil in the summer and see how he’s playing and how he feels.”

Oh, and should Woods and any of the other sideline strategists (the skipper and his assistants Woods, Steve Stricker, Tom Lehman and Jim Furyk) play their way onto the ‘16 squad, Love may call on any number of past captains willing to pitch in.

“We have plenty of guys,” Love said, “to drive the golf carts, and watch the guys play, and feed me information.”

And if everybody should be otherwise engaged, there’s always Tiger’s favorite furry-tailed rodent.