On Tuesday Nov. 7, following the announcement of the new Ryder Cup selection process, your friendly neighborhood Golfblogger wrote:

I like the idea—especially in doubling the number of Captain’s picks. In fact, I think that ALL of the picks should be Captain’s picks.

Two days later, having apparently read the post, Tiger Woods offered a resounding second to the motion. In a Nov. 9 interview in China, Woods said:

“In an ideal world, if you want your best team you have 12 picks ... The more picks you can get, the better it is.”

The GolfBlogger is happy to have Woods endorse his concept and welcomes the World’s Greatest Player as a reader to the blog.

At the end of the week in which Byron Nelson passed away, Tiger Woods extended his winning streak to six. It’s the longest of his career, but five short of Nelson’s magic 11.

There has been some discussion as to whether he is really at six, or at one, since he was bounced out of the first round of match play at Wentworth two weeks ago. But the streak he is pursuing is the PGA record for consecutive victories, for that is the one held by Lord Byron. He’s at six, and people should stop trying to take that away from him.

I really think that we have to start seriously considering the idea that Byron’s “Unbreakable record” is attainable. In a previous post, I wrote about a possible scenario for breaking the streak.

But Tiger’s overwhelming victory—for that is what an eight shot win is—makes me pause for thought.  If he is so dominant this week, what happened last week during the Ryder Cup? If Tiger had turned in a performance like he did at the American Express Championship, he would have done better than 3 points. Granted, that would have made it 11.5 to 16.5, but perhaps if he had dominated others would have been inspired.

Indeed, if you judged his career on his Ryder Cup performances, he would not be considered the Greatest Player Ever, but just Another Good Player. I think it’s pretty clear that the Ryder Cup—for whatever reason—just doesn’t do it for him.

A friend of mine suggested yesterday that he had one million reasons to win the American Express, and none for the Ryder Cup. He pointed out that Tiger was one of the players who, a few years ago questioned why they should pay the Ryder Cup for free.

I don’t think it’s the money, though. I think that Tiger is inspired by PERSONAL achievement. That would explain why he’s so dominant in singles matches, but merely adequate in team efforts. And it would explain why the Captains in team events do so much hand wringing over finding the proper partner for him. If the money figures into it, it is likely just as a measure of his own personal success.

Tiger’s a solo act. And that’s ok. (I think Stevie should be prepping his resume, though). I’m not much of a “team” guy either; I’d rather succeed or fail on my own efforts. But knowing that, I try to bow out of as many group efforts as possible.

And if Tiger feels that way, maybe he should bow out of the next Cup.

I just realized that in whining about the US play, I haven’t offered any congratulations to the European Team.

I love match play, and admire those who can do it well—it’s a very different game than stroke play. I think that it’s the best and most exciting form of golf.

I’ve often thought that all High School golf matches should be done in a match play format. And I’ll write some more about that later.

But for now. Congratulations to the European Team. Some of my favorite players are European and it’s nice to see them having such fun.

Now back to your regularly scheduled whining.

So we’ve lost another Ryder Cup. You can’t say that it was unexpected, although it is disappointing.

The worst part is that golf pundits are going to spend an inordinate amount of time pontificating upon why the US has lost yet another Cup. And yet, that is precisely what I am going to do here.

Two of the biggest topics of discussion have been—and will most likely continue to be—the questions of leadership and teamwork.

Blame Jack Nicklaus for the US’ recent losses in the Ryder Cup.

Ryder Cup Captain Tom Lehman once almost gave up golf to sell skis.
Really.

The New York Sun has an article analyzing Ryder Cup Captain Tom Lehman’s final picks for this year’s team.