Tiger’s Ryder struggles continue
SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — Tiger Woods kept bending over in anguish, his shoulders sinking further and further, the energy ebbing as he made his way around Le Golf National for the second time yesterday.
It was the body language of a tired, defeated golfer.
Quite a contrast to the previous weekend, when he triumphantly strutted down the final fairway at East Lake, savoring his first victory in more than five years as thousands of fans cheered his name.
Then again, this is the Ryder Cup — one of the few blemishes on Woods’ brilliant record. Nothing much has changed in France.
He dropped all three of his matches the first two days, cut down each time by Europe’s most dynamic combination, mullet-sporting Tommy Fleetwood and British Open champ Francesco Molinari.
Playing with two different partners, none of Woods’ matches reached the 18th hole. In fact, he’s only held the lead for a grand total of three holes the entire weekend.
It was hardly what was expected from his first Ryder Cup appearance since 2012.
“The three matches we played, they never missed a putt inside 10 to 12 feet,” Woods groaned. “That’s hard to do. Playing against a team like that, that’s putting that well, you’re going to have to make a lot of birdies. We didn’t.”
Woods teamed with Patrick Reed for a pair of fourball matches, then switched to Bryson DeChambeau yesterday afternoon. The new partnership didn’t fare any better than the first one.
The duo known as “Moli-wood” led from the very first hole on the way to a 5-and-4 whipping, the match ending when DeChambeau missed a birdie putt at the par-5 14th.
The struggles of Woods and his partners are a big reason the starstudded Americans face a daunting 10-6 deficit heading to today’s singles matches. While certainly not impossible to pull off such a comeback — it was done in 1999 by the Americans in Brookline, and again in 2012 by the Europeans at Medinah — the U.S. hasn’t won the Ryder Cup on this side of the Atlantic in a quarter-century.
“We’ve got some work to do,” Woods said. “Hopefully we can get off to a quick start and get up in some of these matches and turn the tide a little bit.”
Looking to get his career back on track after myriad physical problems and personal missteps, the 42-yearold Woods played in 19 events this season — roughly the number he used to take on in his prime. While his comeback from major back surgery has been nothing short of remarkable, it looks like the grind of the year and all the work he put in to get back on the course caught up with him at the worst possible time.
“Early in the week, he looked a little tired. His pace looked a little bit slow walking,” U.S. captain Jim Furyk said. “I think that’s expected, coming off a big win. You have to think emotionally what he put into his comeback to this season, the amount of golf he played leading up this ... (it’s) a lot more golf than he’s used to.”