In many golf fans’ eyes, Tiger Woods is the greatest to have ever played the game.
While others may say Jack Nicklaus is the greatest of all time, Woods has undoubtedly had more of a transformational impact on the game of golf than anybody else.
While Woods was dominant on the PGA Tour and in major championships, he never had the record in the Ryder Cup that his talents deserved.
Woods always found it difficult to form strong partnerships with his fellow American players.
That all came to a head in 2004 with Woods’ doomed partnership with Phil Mickelson at the Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills.
Interestingly, Woods is set to captain the US Ryder Cup team in 2027, although nothing is set in stone as yet.
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Now Padraig Harrington has opened up on perhaps why Woods didn’t have the same kind of intimidation factor at Ryder Cups as he did during regular tournament play.
What no European player realised about Tiger Woods before the Ryder Cup in 1997
Woods was still a baby, relatively speaking, when he made his Ryder Cup debut in 1997 at Valderrama.
He had already won The Masters of course, but those on the other side of the Atlantic were still very much unfamiliar with his game.
Harrington spoke to The Sky Sports Golf Podcast and shared how playing against Woods at the Ryder Cup back in the day was something that every European player wanted to do.
“Every time anybody played against Tiger at the Ryder Cup, it was a no-lose situation for them. If they won the match it was huge for the team, if they lost the match that was expected.
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“People always wanted to get their chance against Tiger, they didn’t say it out publicly like Stephen Ames back in the day, you just kept your head down, went out there and hoped it worked out.
“It was big for the team to try and beat him.
“We didn’t realise how good Tiger Woods was back then, this side of the water, and nobody could have imagined what he went on to do at that stage.”
Tiger Woods’ Ryder Cup record
Considering his dominance in the game, Woods’ Ryder Cup record is a hugely surprising one.
He won nowhere near as many matches as he would have liked to.
Here is how his career results in the Ryder Cup look:
Ryder Cup resultsWoods’ totalsMatches played37Wins13Losses21Halves3
Woods had such a tunnel-visioned approach to winning, and he was simply better when playing his own ball rather than worrying about being part of a team.
The truth of the matter is that Woods wouldn’t swap his 82 PGA Tour wins and 15 major titles for more points in the Ryder Cup, and that tells us all we need to know about what motivates the best players in the world.
