Tiger Woods never enjoyed his college nickname, Urkel, but, according to U.S. Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III, the 14-time major winner who’ll serve as a vice captain at Hazeltine next month still has a bit of the nerd in him.
‘Tactician’ Tiger Woods losing sleep over Ryder Cup strategy
Meanwhile Rory McIlroy has taken it upon himself to get the Euro rookies prepared for the rude awakening of playing an away game at Hazeltine.
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Woods, who will navigate the famed Minnesota course from his golf cart as one of DL3’s four lieutenants, will apparently see much of the action standing at a white board, drawing up pairings and testing strategies for the 12 players going up against Rory McIlroy and his rookie-riddled European team.
“Tiger was on the task force, he’ll be a future captain, so he’s got to be a part of the decision-making process of this whole new, Ryder Cup committee,” Love said in a recent captain’s log entry. “Tiger is more interested in the strategy side of it -- rounding out the team with picks, or making small groups, making pairings.
“He’s our tactician more than anything,” said Love.
McIlroy, while he’ll be leading his squad on the course, has apparently taken it upon himself to get his Ryder Cup newbies — Masters winner Danny Willett, Chris Wood, Danny Sullivan, Matt Fitzpatrick and Rafa Cabrera-Bello — ready for the “rude awakening” they’ll face as the visiting squad.
“The rookies may be playing on the PGA Tour but they’re in for a for a rude awakening when it comes to playing in a Ryder Cup in the States, as it will be tough as the whole crowd can be against you and you don’t really get much reaction from them,” McIlroy told Bernie McGuire ahead The Barclays, this week’s first of four FedEx Cup series competitions.
“Then that’s understandable over here,” McIlroy added, “as they will be rooting so hard for their own team.”
Perhaps none so hard as Woods, who, to the surprise of many in the golf world, went all in on the task force established in the wake of the 2014 Ryder Cup debacle, in which the Euros beat the Americans for their seventh win in the past 10 contests. Then, when multiple back surgeries forced him to the disabled list a year ago, the former world No. 1 took on his role as Sammy the Squirrel’s chauffeur.
“He’s excited about it, he doesn’t sleep much, he puts a lot of thought into it,” said Love. “There’s a reason why he’s arguably one of the greatest players to ever play the game. He knows how to prepare, he knows how to think his way around a golf course, around a golf tournament.
“He’s committed to being a part of it,” Love noted, “and he means it.”
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