TIGER WOODS OFF TO RYDER CUP ON A HIGH

TIGER WOODS will head to France for the Ryder Cup this week having sparked dramatic scenes at the East Lake Golf Club on Sunday with a first victory in five years.

Thousands of adoring fans charged up the 18th fairway in Atlanta to watch him clinch the Tour Championship in what was possibly the most emotional triumph of his now 80 wins on Tour.

Woods, 42, must first put his individual ambitions to the side for a week when he returns to the US Ryder Cup team seeking to retain the trophy at Le Golf National, outside Paris, in the September 28-30 showdown with Europe.

Captain Jim Furyk handed him a wildcard pick to the event for the first time since 2012, based largely on high finishes in the Open and PGA Championship. But his performance around East Lake, in which he led after 36- and 54-holes before seeing out victory by two shots from a surging Billy Horschel, was something else. “It’s certainly up there with obviously all the major championships I’ve won, [the] Players, World Golf Championships,” Woods said.

“But this is under different circumstances. I’ve explained throughout the year that I just didn’t know whether [or] when this would ever happen again.

“Am I going to be able to sit, stand, walk, lay down without feeling the pain that I was in? I just didn’t want to live that way,” he said of his previous fears. “This is how the rest of my life is going to be? It’s going to be a tough rest of my life.”