Tiger to play in the 2023 Ryder Cup? His captain has two demands

Will we see Tiger Woods at the 2023 Ryder Cup in Italy? Well, the answer to that is a pretty confident yes. The asterisk is, however, whether or not the 15-time major winner will be holding a golf club or not at Marco Simone.

And before all you skeptics starts yelling the obvious and pointing to Tiger’s recent high-profile injury woes, it seems one man who still remains hopeful is Team USA captain Zach Johnson, who has refused to rule out selecting the 47-year-old for the biennial tournament in September.

Speaking for the first time this year ahead of the Rome showdown, Johnson revealed Woods will be part of his American squad for the Ryder Cup, adding “It’s just a matter of to what degree.”

Johnson said: “I would only contemplate having him on the team if he felt he was putting up some numbers and some scores. Number one, showing some sign of being competitive. And then number two, that discussion would be had with the other guys that are a part of that team, and specifically him.”

Woods made just three official starts in 2022 – all of which came in major championships – with his best finish coming at the Masters where he placed 47th. More recently, Tiger withdrew from his own event, the Hero World Challenge, with injury before teeing up in The Match alongside Rory McIlroy as well the PNC Championship with son Charlie – both of which requiring him to use a buggy.

With the 15-time major winner also admitting he “won’t be playing a full PGA Tour schedule ever again”, qualifying for the Ryder Cup seems off the cards for 2023. Johnson, though, is fully confident his vice-captain from the 2019 Presidents Cup will still aid Team USA in some capacity.

“If there is anything I trust in Tiger Woods is that he’s extremely invested in this team and the future Cups. Extremely invested,” Johnson continued. “I can’t speak to that enough. And then I think you would do anything and everything for the betterment of the team. I assume he would say – I don’t like making assumptions – but I’m confident he would say, ‘Yeah, I can play, or no, I can’t.’”

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