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Tiger Woods' mediocre Ryder Cup performances, ranked

Tiger Woods was always going to be a presence at the 2018 Ryder Cup – he’d been selected as a vice captain by Jim Furyk, the leader of this year’s U.S. squad. But as recently as five months ago, it was almost impossible to imagine that Woods would actually be on the course battling for Team USA in his eighth competition. Now, after a scintillating summer that saw him make Sunday charges in two majors, Tiger is virtually assured to be a captain’s pick for the 2018 team.

With that in mind, we looked at Tiger’s seven past performances in the Ryder Cup (he missed 2008, 2014 and 2016 with injury) and ranked them from best to worst.

The U.S. has lost six of the seven events in which Tiger has played and while he’s not solely to blame, a lot can be pinned on him.

For all his greatness, Tiger has just 14½ points in 33 career matches (Arnold Palmer had 23 points in one fewer match), a win percentage of 43.94%. He’s hardly the only recent player to struggle at the Cup, as you’d expect: Phil Mickelson is at 47.78% for his career and Jim Furyk is at 35.29%.

These rankings aren’t as easy as judging Tiger by his match record at each Cup. Like a slugger hitting a solo home run with his team down 8-1 in the bottom of the eighth or a quarterback throwing a touchdown in garbage time, there’s plenty of stat padding to be had in the Ryder Cup.

Yeah, Tiger had a winning record in the 2006 Cup when the U.S. lost by a record nine points, but is that more meaningful than the 2-3 mark he posted in 1999 when he won a crucial singles point in the Sunday comeback by the red, white and blue? Of course not. With that in mind, here are Tiger’s Ryder Cup showings, ranked.

1. 2010, Celtic Manor: Europe 14½, USA 13½ (Tiger 3-1)

In an indictment of either the world golf rankings or the Ryder Cup point system (or both), Tiger Woods wasn’t part of the automatic eight qualifiers for the 2010 Cup even though he was ranked No. 1 in the world. (This was months after his scandal.)

He was an easy choice for captain Corey Pavin and it paid off. Paired with Steve Stricker, Tiger went 2-1 in the early four-ball and foursome matches that were delayed because of rain.

On the final day (played on Monday for the first time ever), the U.S. entered trailing by three. Tiger kept the U.S. alive with a crucial late win against Francesco Molinari to bring the score to 13-11 (the U.S. would have had to win out to retain the Cup), but Hunter Mahan lost the final match when Graeme McDowell drained a putt on No. 17 and Europe took the title.

Tiger and Stricker tied with Ian Poulter and Luke Donald for most points overall in one of the great Ryder Cups in history.

2. 1999, The Country Club: USA 14½, Europe 13½

(Tiger 2-3)

In his second Ryder Cup, Tiger got off to a slow start, going 1-3 in the team matches. His only win came with Steve Pate (of all people) in Saturday morning foursomes after Tiger drained an eagle on No. 14 to help give the pair a 1-up win.

On Sunday, Tiger was part of the American wave that won singles 8½ to 3½ to give the U.S. the Cup, but Tiger’s win was hardly impressive – he was matched up against rookie Andrew Coltart, the least accomplished player on the Euro team.

3. 2002, The Belfry: Europe 15½, USA 12½ (Tiger 3-2)

With the 2001 Cup postponed for a year because of 9/11, Tiger didn’t get to play the team competition during the hottest stretch of his career. Still, he entered The Belfry with a staggering six wins in his last 11 majors and figured to lead a superior U.S. team (10 of the team’s 12 golfers had won, or would win, a major) to back-to-back wins for only the second time in the last 17 years.

But Tiger started 0-2 on Friday before splitting on Saturday to set up an 8-8 team tie headed into the Sunday singles matches. However, his singles match versus Jesper Parnevik, the last of the day, proved irrelevant; Europe won 4½ points in the first five matches to set the stage for an easy win. That this is one of Tiger’s best Ryder Cup performances is quite telling.

4. 2006, K Club: Europe 18½, USA, 9½ (Tiger 3-2)

In the second-straight nine-point blowout at the Ryder Cup, Tiger earned a Pyrrhic victory in leading the American team in points. Not that it was all that impressive: After an opening win in the first match of the event, Tiger and Jim Furyk (who played together all four rounds) didn’t win again until the last match of the team event, by which point the U.S. was down an untenable 10-5. Phi Mickelson was a disastrous 0-4-1 for the U.S.

5. 2004, Oakland Hills: Europe 18½, USA, 9½ (Tiger 2-3)

Oops. The historic pairing of Tiger and Phil blew up in the face of captain Hal Sutton. The oil-and-water pairing played like, well, oil and water in going 0-2 on the first day of play as the U.S. fell behind by an insurmountable score of 6½ to 1½.

Tiger’s two wins on Saturday and Sunday was mere stat-padding. In the end, Europe posted the biggest blowout in Ryder Cup history.

6. 1997, Valderamma: Europe 15½, USA 14½ (Tiger 1-3-1)

Tiger was a big ol’ dud in his first Ryder Cup appearance. Just five months after his historic win at The Masters, a 21-year-old Woods won his first ever match, paired with his best bud Mark O’Meara.

It would be his last.

He and O’Meara fell in Friday foursomes and Saturday four-ball, then he halved the afternoon foursomes with Justin Leonard before falling in singles to world No. 43 Constantine Rocca, 4 & 2. Only two other Americans lost that day and a win by any would have given the U.S. the Cup. No one who played all five matches posted fewer points than Tiger’s 1.5.

7. 2012, Medinah: Europe 14½, USA 13½ (Tiger 1-2-1)

Say this for captain Davis Love III; he was firm in his convictions. After Tiger and Steve Stricker made for a formidable partnership at the 2010 Ryder Cup, Love stuck with the duo for three of the four team rounds and saw them go 0-3. It wasn’t a disaster – they made it to the 17th hole of each (and the 18th of two) but they lost to three different teams (Poulter/Rose, Westwood/Colsaerts, Garcia/Donald), allowing half the points that the U.S. gave up over the first two days.

Entering Sunday with a 10-6 lead, the Cup appeared all but clinched, but Europe won the first four matches to tie it up. Tiger’s match with Francesco Molinari, the last on the course, figured to be a decider, but Martin Kaymer ended up clinching the Cup for Europe (by defeating Stricker), rendering Tiger’s halve meaningless. Like in a lot of Cups, Tiger wasn’t given a chance to make a difference on the final day. His track record suggests that might not be the worst thing.

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