He’s made all the right noises and done all the proper things — all that’s left now for Tiger Woods is to deliver when it matters most at the Ryder Cup.
The world’s foremost golfer clearly wants to erase the one blemish he has on his peerless track record and he has decided that now is the time and the K-Club outside Dublin is the place to do it.
Although at 30 he has reached an age when many other golfers are only just beginning their Ryder Cup careers, Woods will be playing for the fifth time.
He has been on the winning side only once and understands that one of the main reasons for this is his own paltry contribution.
In 20 games, he has won just seven, while losing 11 and halving two.
On top of that his comments and actions have up until now given every indication that the biennial trans-Atlantic team trophy is not at the top of his agenda.
But since pocketing his 12th major at the US PGA on August 20, Woods has turned his focus to bringing the Ryder Cup back to the United States.
First of all he invited out the team’s four rookies to help ease their way into the unique pressures of the competition.
Then he shuffled his schedule to join his 11 teammates and skipper at a reconnaissance outing to the K-Club, before teeing up at Wentworth to get in some practice at match play.
Arriving with the rest of the US team in Dublin on Monday, Woods has been team-spirit personified even joining in a sing-song despite his inability to hit the right notes.
He was briefly derailed on Wednesday when he felt obliged to express his disgust at an Irish magazine publishing bogus topless photos of his Swedish model wife Elin, but he was soon back on Ryder Cup duty saying he is aware that playing with a partner has posed him problems in the past.
”My individual record is pretty good in match play going back to my junior days, my amateur days even [and] the match play at La Costa. I think I’ve done all right,” he said.
”But as far as my team match play, no, I haven’t won as many points as I feel like I should.
”That’s been frustrating, so hopefully I can get up there this week and get some points for our team.”
Pivotal to Woods’s aspirations will be world number three Jim Furyk, with whom he has established a good partnership that ended unbeaten in the President’s Cup match against the Rest of the World last year.
They will almost certainly lead the way for the Americans in Friday’s opening fourballs and if successful could well play three or four times together on the first two days.
And Woods has identified Furyk, who has also played in the last four sides, as well as Phil Mickelson, as being one of the three senior members of the team charged with setting the right tone and helping the newcomers.
”When I qualified for the team [in 1997] guys like Freddie [Couples] and Davis [Love] were the leaders and veterans of the team and they were tremendous leaders,” he said.
”I just sat back and listened and learned. If you are a young person on the team, that’s what you do, you listen and learn.
”Hopefully one day you can take up more of a leadership role and do just as good a job as they did and hopefully the three of us can do that this week.”
So far so good and Woods has received nothing but praise from his teammates and from his captain Tom Lehman, who said his top player ”has really stepped up with the things that he does, the things that he says”.
Teammate David Toms added: ”Tiger seems a little more open to everyone. He has been great behind the scenes and hopefully that is going to carry over into his performances.”
Woods will likely play in all five sessions and will no doubt be aware that a 100% record would actually give him an overall 12-11 winning record in the Ryder Cup and finally put to bed the stories that he is not a team player. — Sapa-AFP