Tiger Woods doesn't belong anywhere near the Ryder Cup in 2027
In the wake of his Friday afternoon wreck and DUI arrest in Florida , Tiger Woods faces massive challenges in both his personal and professional lives. One challenge he shouldn’t face: the question of whether he should captain the Ryder Cup team. Yes, at a time like this, when Woods is facing literal jail time after his arrest on suspicion of DUI, the question of How This Will Affect Golf is borderline irrelevant.
But it’s a critical question nevertheless, because the sway that Woods has held over the sport of golf, and the way that the sport of golf has sheltered Woods, are key factors that led to Friday’s rollover accident. Quite simply, Woods is not fit to spend the next 18 months as the face of the United States Ryder Cup team. Whether you think Woods has disgraced himself, endangered himself, or merely embarrassed himself, the end result is the same.
This is a man who should be working on himself and his life, not drawing up potential pairings for a Friday fourball session. Sure, this upends what had been a long-term succession plan … but that’s what wrecks tend to do. For roughly two decades now, conventional wisdom has held that Woods would eventually become a Ryder Cup captain, as virtually all American and European greats of the game eventually do.
(Of course, conventional wisdom also held that Phil Mickelson would one day captain the United States, and that now seems about as likely as you or me getting the call. ) Woods was asked to captain the 2025 team. He declined, citing the demands on his time presented by his role as a leading member of the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council.
The job went to Keegan Bradley instead, and, well, we saw how that turned out. Earlier this year, Woods revealed that the PGA of America had reached out to him about the captaincy, but was characteristically evasive about specifics: “They have asked me for my input on it, and I haven’t made my decision yet,” he said at the Genesis Invitational in February. Since then, he’s made his decision — or, more accurately, made other decisions that should foreclose this one.
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