Listening to Tiger Woods after a bad round of golf can test your patience. He utters thoughts that makes you think he’s seeing something different. Most recently Sunday, Woods said he should be on this year’s Ryder Cup team, a collection of essentially the players playing the best golf of the year.
Woods has played only twice since March. He missed the cut in his return to the PGA Tour and carded his worst final round in a major Sunday with a 75 to finish at 6-over par for the Open Championship–a whopping 23 shots behind winner Rory McElroy.
And yet there was Woods after his woeful round saying captain Tom Watson should make him one of his three wild card selections for the Ryder Cup.
”But that’s my position, my take on it,” Woods said. ”He’s the captain. Obviously, it’s his decision. He’s going to field the best 12 players that he thinks will win the cup back. And I hope I’m on that team.”
Woods is unlikely to make the FedEx Cup playoffs unless he picks up top-3 finishes at Firestone and the PGA Championship, and that means Watson would have to judge him on those tournaments unless Woods were to play elsewhere. Europe isn’t appealing, with events in Denmark, the Czech Republic and Italy.
”It would make it tougher for me to pick him if he’s not playing,” Watson said.
Woods has played only six rounds since back surgery to alleviate a pinched nerve that forced him to miss three months, including two majors. He said his two rounds at Congressional helped him with his confidence in his surgically repaired back. But after a 69 to start the Open Championship in Hoylake, Woods was a non-factor, which surprised him. He said he anticipated a stronger showing.
”I was certainly expecting it, yes, but I just thought that I know how to play links golf,” Woods said. ”I know how to grind it on these golf courses, and hitting the shots I thought I could get around here. I did the first day. After a bad start I got it back. And unfortunately, as I said, I made too many mistakes with the doubles and triples.
”There’s a lot of things I need to work on, but I haven’t been able to work a lot. I was down for three months. So I’m just now starting to come back. … I’m still building. I’m still working on my game. And I’m getting stronger and faster.”
Woods has missed only one Ryder Cup since his first one in 1997. That was in 2008, when he missed the second half of the season with reconstructive knee surgery. He was a captain’s pick in 2010 by Corey Pavin, following a year of personal turmoil that led to divorce and the hiring of a new swing coach.
