Tiger Woods will be in Paris for the Ryder Cup in September as a vice captain and possibly as a player-vice captain, though U.S. captain Jim Furyk, who on Tuesday tapped Woods and Steve Stricker as two of his assistants for the 2018 matches, said it was too early to send Tiger out as a competitor.
Tiger Woods, Steve Stricker named Ryder Cup vice captains
There’s still room for Bubba Watson on the U.S. squad of assistant captains for the 2018 Ryder Cup, but it’s too early for captain Jim Furyk to commit to Tiger Woods as a player-vice captain.
“Why can’t I have both?” Tiger responded from Riviera last week to a query about whether he would be most helpful to Team USA with clubs in his hand or motoring around Le Golf National in a golf cart.
Woods, before he missed the cut at the Genesis Open, observed that his role was “up to our captain,” and that he had spoken with Furyk about a potential dual role.
“He didn’t say anything,” Woods noted at the time.
Well, the captain has spoken, and the Woods situation is as cloudy as it was before Furyk met the press from PGA of America headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., site of this week’s Honda Classic.
“I’m anxious to see how [Tiger] plays this year and how things go,” said Furyk, “and we’ll do what’s best for him and the team.”
While Woods will make the Honda Classic his third official PGA Tour event since returning to competition following his fourth back surgery (and his fourth tourney overall, including December’s Hero World Challenge), a Ryder Cup start remains a consideration for later in the season.
“Is it possible to do both, is it possible to play?” Furyk asked rhetorically. “I’d like to do what’s best for Tiger. I want to do what’s best for the team, and that would be a bridge we would cross when we got there.”
In weighing the options, Furyk said it was a “good news/bad news” situation for Woods, who has played just those few contests this season.
“He had a great finish at San Diego [T23 at the Farmers Insurance Open] and we’re already talking Ryder Cup, right?” Furyk said. “So that’s the nature of being Tiger Woods and obviously being one of the greatest players, maybe the greatest player of all time.”
Woods and Stricker will join Davis Love III, skipper of the victorious 2016 U.S. team, as vice captains. Woods and Stricker partnered together several times in their days as players, compiling a less-than-stellar 2-4 record.
It’s Stricker’s third Ryder Cup as vice captain and the second for Woods, who greatly enjoyed serving under Love at Hazeltine.
“The Ryder Cup is incredibly special to me,” Woods said in a statement. “I am thrilled to once again serve as a Ryder Cup vice captain and I thank Jim for his confidence, friendship and support.
“My goal is to make the team, but whatever happens over the course of this season, I will continue to do what I can to help us keep the cup,” said Woods, who made his most recent of seven Ryder Cup appearances in 2012 and owns a 13-17-3 mark in the biennial tilt.
With Furyk intending to name additional assistants in the future, Bubba Watson could reprise his stint as a vice captain, a job he said recently he really wanted.
Furyk also reserved the right to choose replacements for any vice captains who qualify for, or are named to, the squad. While we’re looking at you, Woods (and possibly Watson), Furyk will take a wait-and-see approach when it comes to Woods.
“If he can be valuable as a player, I’m sure we would want him playing on this team,” Furyk said. “There’s so much time to go.”
From Sept. 28-30, the Europeans will host the Americans, who aim to keep the cup by prevailing on foreign soil for the first time since 1993.
