GEORGIA ON THEIR MINDS

Woods beat big-game rivals McIlroy and Rose last weekend for his first win in five years.. now he aims to show the youngsters what Tigermania is all about

THE two main men of the European team probably did not need reminding, but Tiger Woods could not resist.

A couple of days after his epic comeback win, he could not resist revelling in how he saw off Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose on a memorable Sunday in Atlanta, Georgia. He could not resist celebrating the unlikely return of the Tiger effect, his heat melting the big-name challengers, just like old times.

Ahead of the final round at the Tour Championship last weekend, McIlroy and Rose were poised to strike a pre-Ryder Cup blow for Thomas Bjorn’s team.

But they never laid a glove on Woods and, less than 48 hours later, the smile of satisfaction was still spread wide across Tiger’s features.

“It was a blast because I had to beat Rory head-up in the final group,” Woods said. “Obviously, I had a three-shot cush, but still, I had not done it in five years. Rosey was tied with Rory. These guys had both ascended to No.1 players in the world, they have won Major championships, they have won all around the world, and I have not played a whole lot of golf the last few years.”

They have never said it publicly but chances are McIlroy and Rose, at some point, shared the locker-room wisdom that Woods would never recapture his magnificence. And to some of golf ’s new breed, to several of his team-mates in France this week, that magnificence was just a sprawling chapter in history, something they could only see on film.

Woods, 42, said: “A lot of these guys – well, the younger guys – were on their way in when I was on my way out.

“They’d never played against me when I was playing well. It’s been, what, five years since I’ve won a golf tournament.

“And a lot of the players were just coming onto the scene, whether it is JT ( Justin Thomas), Jordan (Spieth), now Bryson (DeChambeau). So a lot these guys just had not played against me yet. When my game is there, I feel like I’ve been a tough person to beat.

“They had jokingly been saying, ‘We want to go against you..’ Alright, here you go. We had a run at it and it was a blast.” The player who won for the first time since 2013 might have been vintage Tiger but the current version, after the myriad physical and personal problems he has had to deal with, is a different animal.

He admitted how he was so nervous in his first Ryder Cup appearance, in 1997, that he wanted partner Mark O’Meara to take the first shot in the opening foursomes.

He recalled the emotional talk he had with his dad Earl after blowing the chance to win the 2006 Masters, having been desperate for his dying father to see him in the Green Jacket for a final time. And he laughed about the increasing rowdiness of golf galleries, rowdiness which could well reach new levels this weekend.

He added: “The art of the clap has gone because how can you clap when you have a cell phone in your hand? People are now screaming and they are pretty loud – especially late on when they have tipped back a few.

“In Wales (Ryder Cup 2010), when you got on the first tee, it was reverberating. I loved it. I think this will be exactly like that but I think the decibels will be up a little higher.”

The new Woods is having an awful lot of fun. But, as McIlroy and Rose have found out, when the gun goes on Friday morning, the Europeans will be facing the old Tiger.

It was a real blast because I had to beat Rory head-up in the final group