Turns out that Tiger Woods is a stand up guy. That’s one way to look at Woods taking the Ryder Cup rookies after the United State’s last-day collapse and apologizing for his lack of production.
Tim Rosaforte of GolfWorld magazine told the Golf Channel’s “Morning Drive” program Monday that after the 14½-13½ European victory at Medinah Country Club that Woods convened with Keegan Bradley, Brandt Snedeker, Jason Dufner and Webb Simpson and apologized for not getting the points needed to clinch a U.S. victory.
The partnership of Woods and Steve Stricker was winless in three outings. Woods actually played outstanding on the back nine on Friday afternoon and on Saturday. But he and Stricker were so bad early that the deficit was too much to overcome.
Woods shared a point on the last day, but that was after the Europeans had already clinched the cup. He is 15-17-3 in his career in Ryder Cup competition.
Woods has played on seven Ryder Cup teams but was only part of one American victory, the come-from-behind triumph at Brookline in 1999.
The American rookies performed admirably in the biennial matches, far better than Woods. Bradley was (3-1-0), Dufner (3-1-0), Snedeker (1-2-0) and Simpson (2-2-0).
Woods also took the blame for the United States Ryder Cup teams losing six of the last eight matches prior to this year’s competition, saying the week of the event: “Certainly I am responsible for that, because I didn’t earn the points that I was put out there for. I believe I was out there, what, in five sessions each time, and I didn’t go 5-0 on our side. So I certainly am a part of that, and that’s part of being a team. I needed to go get my points for my team, and I didn’t do that. Hopefully I can do that this week, and hopefully the other guys can do the same and we can get this thing rolling.”
He did not. And while others were even worse — namely Stricker — Woods understands more was expected from him.
