SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – Tiger Woods was on the wrong side of history this week at the Ryder Cup, and he’ll be happy he avoided Francesco Molinari in Sunday singles.
Woods hasn’t been able to escape the Italian all year, first when Molinari won the Quicken Loans National and again at The Open at Carnoustie. Now Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood have become the first-ever European duo to go 4-0 in a single Ryder Cup, with three of those wins coming at Woods’ expense.
Woods teamed with Patrick Reed in the morning fourballs, and he played alongside Bryson DeChambeau in the afternoon foursomes. But the results were the same, as Woods drops to 0-3 in his first Ryder Cup since 2012 with the Americans facing a 10-6 overall deficit.
“Just pretty pissed off,” Woods said. “The fact that I lost three matches, and didn’t feel like I played poorly. That’s the frustrating thing about match play. We can play well and nothing can happen.”
Match scoring from the 42nd Ryder Cup
Ryder Cup: Articles, photos and videos
Woods and DeChambeau have been frequent practice round partners at PGA Tour events this year, but they lost the opening hole to Molinari and Fleetwood and trailed the rest of the way. While the Americans combined to bogey three of the first eight holes, the Europeans made four birdies without dropping a single shot in the difficult foursomes format.
“The three matches we played, they never missed a putt inside 10, 12 feet. That’s hard to do,” Woods said. “Playing against a team like that, that’s putting that well, you’re going to have to make a lot of birdies, and we didn’t.”
The struggles this week drop Woods’ career Ryder Cup record to 13-20-3. He has not won a match in the event since 2010, when he beat Molinari in singles at Celtic Manor.
