Tiger out to erase memory of Spain

Leader, or loser? Tiger Woods, undisputed world number one, wants to add one tag and shed another as he plays his first Ryder Cup match on home soil.

Two years ago, in Valderrama, Woods endured a miserable time as indifferent form - and an inability to fit in with team structures - meant he took the brunt of the blame for back-to-back defeats in the biennial contest.

This time round, things are different. He's the man. The one that captain Ben Crenshaw and his fellow team-mates believe will provide the inspiration for victory. "Tiger is playing some of the best golf of his young career," remarked Crenshaw. "He's a very, very smooth engine right now." And, certainly, his form this season backs up his ranking and those expectations: he has won four of his last seven events.

Still, the question mark is there. He professes to love matchplay and points to his record as an amateur which brought three successive US Amateur championships as evidence of his fondness for the discipline. Yet, in a team environment, things aren't so sweet. Quite sour, in fact. His amateur appearances in the Eisenhower Trophy and Walker Cup, and his professional appearances in Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup and Dunhill Cup, have all ended in abject failure.

If Tiger delivers, then the Americans expect to win. If he doesn't? The player, and his associates, aren't even contemplating such a scenario.

In Valderrama, Woods took one and half points out of five.

He hated attending team functions, and would send out to a restaurant in nearby Sotogrande for pizza and burgers. "In relation to '97, I really didn't know all the guys on the team that well. I didn't know their wives, didn't know their girlfriends, their kids. I feel more comfortable this time, and I'm having a lot more fun."

Of his miserable time in Spain, he observed: "I just didn't hit the shots at the right time. I didn't make the putts. I feel pretty positive coming into this event. I love matchplay, and hopefully I will be able to execute the shots at the right time."

Woods's Ryder Cup record of one win, three losses, one halved match isn't one that fits well with the world's current top player. His defeat by Costantino Rocca (4 and 2) two years ago rubbed salt into an open wound.

Earlier in the week, he was asked a question. Do you feel the need to perform well in a Ryder Cup in order to judged, down the road, as a great player? "I don't think so," responded Woods. "The greatest player of all time Jack Nicklaus had a losing record in the Ryder Cup. I don't think that's going to say that he's been a bad player in the game . . . I don't think it is something that's going to make or break your career."

The analogy is a good one, because, among Nicklaus's least favoured memories, are two losses in the competition to Brian Barnes. Woods, though, seems to be more of a team player this time round and, over the past few days, he seems to have accepted the role of leader, even though Mark O'Meara and Payne Stewart are considered the veterans of the American team.

His trademark this season has been consistency. Woods has won five times on the US Tour and once on the European Tour - and Hal Sutton remarked: "Tiger's game could lead anybody. He is capable of some things not many people in the world are." Indeed, when Colin Montgomerie was asked if the course was set up to suit Woods - and other American long-hitters - the Scot replied: "The way he's playing right now, any course would suit him."

Woods is determined to wipe out the memory of Spain, to prove that he can be the inspirational figure in his country's attempt to regain the Ryder Cup. And, yet, there is also a note of warning. To his team-mates, to the expectant crowds. "The European players are pretty adaptable. They can manage okay on just about any golf course you put them on. But I don't go to a tournament thinking about losing. It's not why I show up."

This season, he has raked in over $4.5 million in prizemoney. This week, he will pocket $5,000 in expenses and receive a wardrobe of designer clothes valued at over $13,000.

It's small change. The only thing that really matters to Woods in Brookline is to play a big role in a team win. "In matchplay, in 18 holes, all it takes is just one shot here and there, and especially on the back nine," said Woods. "If we can make those putts at the crucial times, who knows, we could turn it around and get the cup back." That's what it is all about.