Tiger Woods has warned the game’s new generation to be careful what they wish for, telling them that if they have always wanted to play him when he is on form, then now is the time.
The 42-year-old saw off an illustrious field to win the Tour Championship in Atlanta on Sunday. It was his first victory since 2013 – and his 80th PGA Tour title in total – and completed a stunning return from a fourth back operation. As he now turns his focus to the Ryder Cup, the world No 13 says he is relishing playing against – and with – those who have never experienced him in his prime.
“The younger guys were on their way in when I was on my way out,” he said. “They had never really played against me when I was playing well. It’s been five years since I’ve won a tournament.
“A lot of the players were just coming on to the scene, whether it’s JT [Justin Thomas], Jordan [Spieth], Bryson [DeChambeau] – Brooks [Koepka] was just getting started, coming off the European Tour. So a lot of these guys just had not played against me yet. When my game is there I feel like I’ve always been a tough person to beat. They have jokingly been saying, ‘We want to go against you.’ All right. Here you go.
“And we had a run at it. It was a blast because I had to beat Rory [McIlroy] head-up in the final group. Justin Rose was tied with Rory. I had a three-shot cushion, which is awfully nice, but still, I had not done it in five years. These guys had both ascended to No 1 in the world, they have won major championships, they have wongolf tournaments all around the world and I have not really played a whole lot of golf for the last few years.”
Thomas, Spieth, DeChambeau and Koepka at least have Woods as a teammate this week. McIlroy and Rose are prominent members of the opposition.
Quick guide
Ryder Cup: why is it special and how does it work?
While most of golf’s marquee tournaments are individual affairs with a player competing for themselves at strokeplay across four days, at the Ryder Cup the 12-strong teams of European and American golfers face off playing matchplay golf in a competition held every two years and played over three days. The USA are the holders, winning the 2016 event 17-11 at Hazeltine, Minnesota. The bookmakers are seldom wrong and make the USA odds-on favourites but Europe have always relished the underdog role and will not be lacking in motivation on home turf.
Each team has a non-playing captain, which this year is Thomas Bjørn for Europe and the USA’s Jim Furyk. Each is assisted by five vice-captains, in Europe’s case Luke Donald, Padraig Harrington, Graeme McDowell, Lee Westwood and Robert Karlsson. Bjørn has five rookies to handle in Paris, although two of them are the US Open runner-up, Tommy Fleetwood, and the world No 7, Jon Rahm. Furyk has three, one of whom, Justin Thomas, is ranked No 4 in the world.
The teams will battle it out for 28 points and the first to 14.5 points wins the Ryder Cup, while the USA will retain the trophy as defending champions should the contest end 14-14 on Sunday. It is comprised of three types of matchplay.
Fourballs Two golfers from each team compete but each player uses his own ball. The lowest score from each pair will count for the score for their side. There are four fourball matches each morning for the first two days.
Foursomes Two players from Europe compete against two players from USA, with team members alternating between shots and each team using one ball. Four matches are played on Friday afternoon and four on Saturday afternoon.
Singles All 24 players compete on the final day of the tournament. There are 12 match-ups, with every member of the European team going head-to-head over 18 holes with a player from the USA team.
Further proof that the Woods swagger is back came in a strange Tuesday moment when a member of the media thanked the 14-times major winner for delivering another victory. Woods could not resist a dig in his reply. “There have been a lot of you who have supported me through a lot of the years, and many have doubted that I’d play again, and win again,” Woods said. “So I want to say thank you to all the people that have supported me.”
The scale of Woods’s East Lake win, which has been felt across sport, has not yet resonated with the man himself. Woods joined the USA team who flew overnight to Paris on Sunday into Monday, and has instantly reacquainted himself with Ryder Cup matters.
“I’ve been trying to answer the text messages I’ve gotten but I’m still well north of 150,” he said. “I haven’t really had a lot of time to soak it in. I will, post-Ryder Cup. I’ll take a look back and reflect on it. I saw a couple of videos on some French news channel but I haven’t sat down and watched it yet. I still have this event to do.
“Post-Ryder Cup, it will be a different story. I will look back and soak it up and really reflect on what transpired that entire week.”
His focus on the event is understandable. He has been involved in one USA victory in seven playing appearances and that was as long ago as Brookline 1999. The Americans have not won in Europe since 1993. “We haven’t done well,” Woods said. “The year that we won in 2008 I had reconstruction knee surgery after the US Open and I didn’t play. I was a vice-captain in 2016, but it’s different being a player.
“My overall Ryder Cup record, not having won as a player since 1999, is something that hopefully we can change. We haven’t won as a US squad here in 25 years on foreign soil, so hopefully that will change this week, as well.
“Looking back on my entire Ryder Cup career, that [record] is not something that I have really enjoyed and I’ve really liked seeing. I’ve played a lot of the matches.
“ There’s a lot of nerves. It’s excitement. It’s a different atmosphere and one that we absolutely love.”