Is Tiger Woods really bothered about his Ryder Cup record?

Is Tiger Woods really bothered about his Ryder Cup record?

For as long as I can remember, I have always felt Tiger Woods has never been as motivated for the Ryder Cup as some of his team mates and opponents.

This is not just in light of Europe’s epic Ryder Cup comeback, which saw the away team claim 8 and a half of the 12 points on offer on the last day, to storm to victory. Or the fact that Tiger ended it winless in four matches.

If you look at Tiger’s Ryder Cup record (won only 13 from 32 matches and 7 losses from 12 in the alternate shot foursomes). You would understandably find this a perplexing record from a 14 time major winner.

At 36 Tiger Woods is second in the all-time list of Major open winners, only four behind Jack Nicklaus who won his last Major at the age of 46.

In a career that spanned 40 odd years Jack Nicklaus amassed 115 professional wins. This is Tiger’s 17th year as a pro and he has already racked up 101 Professional wins.

Tiger’s career stats are amazing when you match them up against the person who everyone considers to be golf’s all-time greatest.

In all sports, all teams and players alike have their bogey teams, bogey players and I suppose bogey tournaments. But the extensive failings over a number of years at the Ryder Cup, compared to his phenomenal individual success elsewhere in golf cannot be ignored.

In Tiger’s 16 years as a pro, he has been ranked No1 in 9 of them years, collecting prize money totaling over $115 million dollars. Though golfers have caddie’s and form close bonds with them golf is an extremely individual sport.

Tiger has been bred all his life for this individual sport, from a miracle child prodigy into a professional superstar. Yes he has shared his success with friends and family but the majority of the work, game time, failures and glories have effectively been on him alone.

Though he has a good support system behind him, all his initial success is an individual one. He must have been under extreme pressure all his life, not just growing up as a child prodigy, but also as an African-American in a white dominated sport to succeed.

The Ryder Cup does mean a lot to both sets of teams, but as an individual, who has now been well accustomed to individual success, he is under constant pressure to maintain this success and that is his primary goal.

Not all, but many Ryder Cup participants have neither the same amount of success Tiger has had or are under the same kind of spotlight and pressure for a sustained period of time.

I feel, as we have seen already, when Tiger falls from grace, the fall is from a lot higher distance and the impact is a lot harder than most.

I am not saying Tiger doesn’t care about the Ryder Cup as someone with his level of success must hate to lose anything. But sometimes, and almost unintentionally priorities are, well “prioritised”!

Obviously the Ryder Cup is huge for national pride and patriotism, and I am sure Tiger is extremely patriotic and wants to win every match he plays. But I do believe the Ryder Cup means more to some than others. I bet he feels more pride seeing his name on the individual record books.

For someone with the successes of Tiger Woods, defeats in the Ryder Cup do not impact more than defeats as an individual. Especially when your end goal is your career, records, prize money and ultimately livelihood.