Tiger Woods won’t be at Ryder Cup, but still an asset for U.S. Team

Tiger Woods isn’t expected at the Ryder Cup, but he will still be an asset for the U.S. Team as he continues his recovery from his February car accident.

Woods has performed a variety of duties in the past four international competitions. He was the playing captain in the United States’ victory at the 2019 Presidents Cup, a player at the previous Ryder Cup (2018) and a vice captain in the 2016 Ryder Cup and captain’s assistant for the 2017 Presidents Cup, where he served under Steve Stricker.

“He's been, you know, obviously in my ear a lot and I call him pretty regularly,” Stricker, this year’s Ryder Cup captain, said Monday from Whistling Straits. “He's part of our Ryder Cup team. He's part of what we do.”

Woods’ participation could range from texts to the captains to video calls with players. Stricker said that some of the U.S. players recently visited Woods at his South Florida home.

“I think it's just not a good time for him to be here physically because of where he's at in his rehabilitation and (Whistling Straits is a) tough course to walk,” Stricker said Monday. “Everybody is going to see it, from tee-to-green, it's difficult. So probably won't show up. But he's getting better and his focus and mine is on making a comeback to play again. We don't want to get in the way of that because we would all love to see him come back and play.”

This will be the first time Woods has not been on-site for a Cup competition since the 2015 Presidents Cup in South Korea. His texts to the captains while watching the competition in the wee hours of the morning at home in Florida, where he was rehabbing his ailing back, showed the passion he had for international competition and his desire to serve even when unable to play.

“He was calling us and texting us wanting know what's going on,” Davis Love III said in 2015, after naming Woods as a vice captain for the 2016 Ryder Cup. “He wants to be involved in any way.”

That includes this year, as he watches the action from afar.