Smylie Kaufman believes that Tiger Woods will want assurances from the PGA of America before he decides whether he wants to captain Team USA at the Ryder Cup next year.
All eyes are on Woods to see whether he will take on the captaincy for the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor. The pressure has arguably ramped up following last week’s announcement that Luke Donald will lead Europe for a third time.
Woods has confirmed that he is in contact with the PGA of America about the role. However, the 50-year-old is also the chairman of the Future Competition Committee on the PGA Tour.
With that, the 15-time major champion has plenty on his plate right now.
Why Tiger Woods may be delaying deciding on whether to take the Ryder Cup captaincy
Tiger Woods does have a good relationship with Adare Manor’s owner JP McManus. He also captained the US team at the 2019 Presidents Cup. So there is reason to think that he would be open to taking on the role.
However, speaking on The Smylie Show, Smylie Kaufman suggested that Woods may be reluctant to commit until the PGA of America agree to remove a lot of additional responsibilities not directly related to the week itself.
“I think that there’s a song and dance going on right now between Tiger Woods and the PGA of America to try and limit the amount of things that he’s going to have to do. I don’t think Tiger wants to be the show pony, I think he just wants to be the captain. I think he wants to just be involved in that process,” he said.
“Can you say that there is a level for being the captain and having the responsibility of going to do all these things that the PGA of America ask of the captain to do? And I think Tiger doesn’t want to do that. Some guys like to do it, but I don’t think Tiger wants to. So I think that’s happening right now and they’re just trying to figure out whether he actually wants to do it.”
What Tiger Woods has said about the Ryder Cup captaincy since Bethpage
It is not the first time that Woods has been linked with the captaincy. He confirmed he turned down the role in the build-up to the 2025 event at Bethpage, prompting the PGA of America to spring a surprise and turn to Keegan Bradley.
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Woods claimed at the Hero World Challenge that he had no contact with the PGA about the role for Adare Manor.
But the situation had clearly developed when he spoke to the media again ahead of the Genesis Invitational. Woods suggested that they had asked for his input.
Of course, many took that to mean that the ball has been placed firmly in his court. The Associated Press recently reported that Woods has been asked to make a decision before The Masters.
It certainly does Team USA few favours to have this uncertainty once again, particularly with Europe probably building up quite the head-start on their opponents.