Jack's record? Not bad, actually

Tiger Woods is on the Ryder Cup team, a captain's pick because he hasn't won all year. Frankly, I think that's a mistake.

The US hasn't won a Cup when Tiger was on the team. The only one they've won in the past six matches was the win when he was out after surgery. He sucks at match play, and he is one of the lousiest team players in the world. His entire focus is on beating everyone else on the course, and he's never had the temperament to put that aside and play as a team member. And it's not even as though he's always - or even mostly - won his singles matches.

Back in 2004, he actually dropped the pretense and compared himself to Jack Nicklaus, with that "How many majors did Jack Nicklaus win?" followed by "And what’s his Ryder Cup record?" - the point being that Tiger, like Jack, was in it for the individual wins. And that no one would remember his Ryder Cup record (as the reporters that day did not remember Jack's) the way they remember majors.

But. In actual fact, Jack’s Ryder Cup record is 17-8-3. He won more than twice as many points as he lost. Tiger? Hasn't even broken even (10-13-2). Perhaps had Jack sucked at it the way Tiger does, we'd all remember that.

So unless the past year has really changed him - really changed him - he'll be as big an albatross in Wales as he's been the last five times he's played.

I hope I'm wrong. But I foresee him bringing his drama to the team as well as his indifference.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Maybe Corey Pavin didn't have a real choice. But I think he made the wrong one. Three and a half weeks from now, we'll know.