Tiger Woods is not expected to visit Ryder Cup as he is still in the recovery process from his car accident in February this year says Steve Stricker.
The 45-year-old suffered serious leg injuries in the accident near Los Angeles where his SUV crossed a median, went across two lanes of the road and hit a tree and landed on the driver’s side in the brush.
“Probably not going to happen,” said Stricker when asked whether he thinks the 15-time major winner will be visiting Whistling Straits, Wisconsin.
“He’s been, you know, obviously in my ear a lot and I call him pretty regularly. He’s part of our Ryder Cup Team,” he said in a press conference. “He’s part of what we do. He’s been part of so many of these teams.”
Woods has participated in eight previous Ryder Cups, winning two points for the US’ victorious team in 1999.
Most recently, he was a playing captain in the US’ victory at the 2019 Presidents Cup. He was a captain’s assistant for the 2017 Presidents Cup, where he served under Stricker.
Despite Woods’ absence, Stricker is sure that he will still play a role for afar, as someone he can “bounce ideas off of him”.
He also revealed that some of his team paid him a visit ahead of the competition but thinks that it wouldn’t be the best for Woods to attend the event.
“I think it’s just not a good time for him to be here physically because of where he’s at in his rehabilitation and tough course to walk,” he said.
“Everybody is going to see it, from tee-to-green, it’s difficult. So probably won’t show up. But he’s getting better and his focus and mine is on making a comeback to play again. We don’t want to get in the way of that because we would all love to see him come back and play.”
The Ryder Cup starts on Friday, September 24.