Tiger feels the pressure at Oakland Hills (Agencies) Updated: 2004-09-15 09:45
Tiger Woods accepts he is under pressure to perform at this week's Ryder
Cup. Woods, deposed as world number one by Vijay Singh two weeks ago,
has failed to make an impact in the biennial team competition with five wins and
eight losses in 15 matches. "Hopefully this year will be a different
story," the 28-year-old American told a news conference at Oakland Hills on
Tuesday. "You know how competitive I am. I go out there with the same
attitude and that's to win, period. I don't go into any tournament thinking that
it would be great to lose. "I will be going out there to win as many
points as I can for the team. "That's what I've done, or tried to do,
since my first Ryder Cup in '97 at Valderrama." US team captain Hal
Sutton is expecting big things from Woods this week, and has urged his leading
player to produce his best form at Oakland Hills. "That's not any
different than the rest of the captains have said," Woods said. "I've qualified
as number one in points every time I've been on (the US team). "I've
gone out there and played my best each and every time. I've shot 64 and lost and
I've also played poorly and lost. All I know is I've tried my best. What can you
do? "Any person who gets put out there is only in charge of one point.
It is a team effort and hopefully we can all do our part."
YOUNGEST PLAYER Woods, the youngest player on the US team for
the fourth successive time, has always expected his European opponents to have
extra motivation when they played against him. "That's the way it's
been since my first Ryder Cup," he said. "I knew that, and I've known it all
along. That has not changed. "That's been there from the very first
week. At my first Ryder Cup, I was ranked number one in the world at the
time." Woods has been criticised in the past for lacking team
commitment at Ryder Cups, but he believed this was more a reflection of his
personal style. "I'm certainly not one for big speeches, I think the
captain is doing that enough," he said. "But I'm more than happy to pull guys
aside and go ahead and talk to them a little bit. "I basically go over
to the side eyeball to eyeball and tell them. That's what I've done in the
past. "Some of the guys who are new to this I've already spoken to a
few times this week about what they can expect, what they might go
through. "It's kind of funny. Even though I'm a veteran of Ryder Cup
play, I'm still the youngest guy on the team. "You don't want to step
on anyone's toes, on guys who have been there a long time, such as Davis (Love),
Hal as a captain, Phil (Mickelson). You still want to do the right
things." The 35th Ryder Cup starts on Friday.
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