Two-thirds of the United States team to defend the Ryder Cup will be determined when the US PGA Championship concludes at Whistling Straits on Sunday. If Tiger Woods is not one of the eight automatic qualifiers, it is unlikely he will be among the final 12 to travel to Celtic Manor, Wales to contest the world's biggest matchplay event from October 1-3.
Woods has been at several career crossroads over the past couple of years since he limped off the course at Torrey Pines an exhausted winner of the 2008 US Open - his 14th and last major victory. Doubts about a badly damaged knee were followed by even greater concerns about a severely bruised psyche as his extra-marital affairs were turned into a global soap opera. Now it is simply the world No 1's golfing form, or lack of it, that has occupied the minds of those who follow his fluctuating fortunes.
Woods struggled mightily last week in the Bridgestone Invitational and he acknowledged as much as his Ryder Cup credentials were called into question. An appalling display over the four rounds on the Firestone course saw Woods suffer the ignominy of his worst finish (78th) in 218 tournaments on his home American soil. It also led to him surrendering his automatic Ryder Cup place and a made him reliant on a wild card from Corey Pavin, his country's captain.
If Woods fails to regain that lost ground on those denying him a spot - principally Matt Kuchar and Lucas Glover - then he will need that captain's pick to get him on the plane to Britain. As world No 1, albeit an unconvincing one as Phil Mickelson and Lee Westwood threaten to overtake him, he could make a strong case to be one of Pavin's privileged four. That view was endorsed by Padraig Harrington, who is Europe's most decorated current player but may also need a wild-card entry into Celtic Manor.
Harrington, the triple major winner, is just outside the list of nine players due to qualify automatically for Colin Montgomerie's European team. As he prepared for what he hopes will be a second PGA success, he said of Woods: "He's world No 1, so of course you pick him - that would be my attitude." The indications are, however, that pride will lead to Woods taking the unwanted decision out of the hands of Pavin who will deliberate until September 7 before announcing his four choices.
It appears Woods will either play his way into the team by recapturing something approaching his best form over the coming four days or tell Pavin that he is not good enough to merit a call-up. Darren Clarke, one of three European vice-captains, knows what it is like to go through emotional turmoil and try to hold together a sporting career. The Irishman lost his wife, Heather, to cancer shortly before the 2006 Ryder Cup but managed to figure prominently in a victorious European line-up at the K Club where he was undefeated in three matches.
"Tiger will do what is best for the team and if he thinks he is not ready he is going to say that," he said. "I just hope, like everybody else, that he gets back to the Tiger we all know and watched." The most significant remark came from Woods himself, though, as he analysed his shocking 18-over-par Firestone aggregate. "It's been a long year," he said, repeating the short sentence to hammer it home.
The year is far from over but it may be for Woods if he does not deliver the kind of golf he needs to earn enough points to squeeze out those battling around him for a ticket to the biennial party. wjohnson@thenational.ae
