Westwood questions Woods' presence at Ryder Cup

Omnisports

September 21, 2016 5:44 AM

Lee Westwood is not convinced Tiger Woods will help the United States in his role as Ryder Cup vice-captain.

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The presence of Tiger Woods could be a hindrance to the United States at next week's Ryder Cup, according to Lee Westwood.

Woods was selected as one of Davis Love III's three vice-captains for the clash at Hazeltine after injury ruled him out of the running for a playing role.

The 40-year-old has not competed since August 2015 due to a back injury, but hopes to return to action at the Safeway Open in Napa next month.

In his previous Ryder Cup appearances Woods has lost 14 of 29 matches, and Westwood, one of Darren Clarke's European wildcards, is not convinced the former world number one will add much off the course.

"I don't know what impact there will be from having Tiger around," Westwood told ESPN. "They [the US team] have always struggled to find a partner for Tiger that's been successful.

"He could have an adverse effect in the team room. People have always seemed to try to do too much when they have partnered him. It might be different if he's one of the vice-captains - you don't know."

Despite Europe's domination of the event in recent years, Westwood knows making it four successive wins will not be easy in Minnesota.

"They have got a strong side and probably are favourites, but they haven't won it for a while and they are playing in front of a home crowd," he added. "There is a lot of pressure on them.

"That is going to keep building in the next week or so and by the time the Ryder Cup comes around it is going to be pretty intense for them, the week in Minnesota."

Meanwhile, world number one Jason Day of Australia is relishing putting his feet up to watch the tournament after the PGA Tour Championship at East Lake.

"I get to watch the other players sweat, and I can sit on my couch and watch it, which is fantastic," he told a media conference in Atlanta.

"It's going to be very close. It seems like Europe's gelled very, very nicely over the past years, and that's why they've kind of run away with it a little bit.

"It will be interesting, if America doesn't win, I wonder what's going to happen to that task force?"

The dates for the next edition of the competition - in France in 2018 - were also confirmed on Wednesday.

Le Golf National in Paris will play host the event from September 28 to 30, in what will be only the second time the event has been held on continental Europe.

Omnisports

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