Thursday, May 27, 2010

Do You Think Tiger Woods Should Represent the USA at the Ryder Cup?

Corey Pavin recently said that Tiger Woods would have to earn his way onto the U.S. Ryder Cup Team.

"I'm not going to treat Tiger any different than any other player," Pavin stated. "He's certainly not going to be an automatic pick. He's just going to be treated like everyone else. I'd love to have him on the team, but I want him to be playing well."

I agree with Pavin that Woods should be treated equally with regards to his past Ryder Cup record.: 10-13-2 is not as great an accomplishment as another option for the team, namely Tom Watson, who has a 10-4-1 record. Problem with Watson is he may have already mentally defeated himself by saying, "I've never played the golf course before. That's where the Europeans have out-smarted us."

Woods has only been on a winning Ryder Cup team once in 1999 and didn't even play when Team USA ended it's losing streak in 2008.

With Woods' limited play this year, inconsistencies in his game may translate into lazy play against Team Europe. Pavin doesn't want to risk a loss.

Tiger Woods is one of the greatest golfers to have ever played the game and is extremely close to tying Jack Nicklaus' all major record of 18 (Tiger is only four events shy of this feat.) Jack Nicklaus believes Corey Pavin would need a "brain scan" if he left Tiger off the team but the negatives may outweigh the positives in this instance.

And so I ask the public, if you were Captain Corey Pavin, would you ask Tiger Woods to play in the Ryder Cup?


Ask Team Europe and I'll bet the answer will be a resounding "NO!"

2 comments:

Jim Dauer, FullForesome.com said...

Only if he deserves it, based on his play.

I don't see how someone like Jack Nicklaus, who has said, "No one is bigger than the game," God knows how many times, can say that Tiger deserves a spot on the Ryder Cup team regardless of how he plays between now and the time Pavin has to make his Captain's picks.

Based on his behavior over the course of his marriage, the only thing Tiger Woods is "deserving" of is a swift kick in the tail.

Jim Dauer
FullForesome.com

Patricia Hannigan said...

I think I would. Though I'd be torn by the fact that others may be more deserving... and may even be a better bet at this point... I still think the vast majority of fans and most of the players, not to mention all those connected to the Ryder Cup in a business sense, would definitely want to have Tiger on the team, and I feel, in the end it would be better for the game at this difficult juncture. And I pretty sure being Tiger, he'd probably pull it together when he needed to.