Ryder Cup 2018: Tiger Woods Accepts Blame After Europe Thrash USA

Tiger Woods accepted major part of the blame as the United States team were thrashed by Europe at Le Golf National, which hosted the 42nd Ryder Cup between Sept. 28 and 30.

The Americans came in to the tournament as the favorites owing to their form coming into the competition and that they had nine of their 12 players ranked in the top-15 on the PGA Tour.

But the form book went out of the window once the tournament started as the Europeans put on a clinical performance despite making a slow start and trailing 1-3 after the first session of fourballs on Friday.

There was no looking back, as they inflicted the U.S. team’s first ever session whitewash in their Ryder Cup history by winning all the foursomes in the second session to lead 5-3. They then continued their dominance Saturday and Sunday to complete a 17.5 – 10.5 rout and regain the trophy.

It was a poor showing from the entire American team, but Woods’ as usual had more attention on him — especially after he came into the tournament on the back of his first PGA Tour win in almost five years. The 14-time major champion like his teammates was expected to continue his form, but failed to bring his best on all three days.

Woods failed to win any of his matches to 0-4, which included an unexpected loss to rookie John Rahm in the singles Sunday. The American has a poor Ryder Cup record and has now been part of seven losing US teams at the biennial event.

The 43-year-old admitted the entire team did not execute their game plans like they wanted to, and accepted the major share of the blame after failing to add a point to USA’s tally.

"We obviously didn't win the cup. We didn't execute like we had planned and wanted to," Woods said Sunday after their loss to Europe, as quoted on Yahoo Sports.

"For me personally, I went 0-4. Obviously [that is] very disappointing. Those are four points that aren't going towards our side. It's going towards their side. ... To have a Ryder Cup end that way, for me personally, it doesn't feel very good because I didn't help my team-mates earn any points," he added. "At the end of the day, we came here as a team and we win or lose, and unfortunately we lost this one."

Team U.S. captain Jim Furyk admitted he will have to accept the major part of the blame and made it clear he trusts every member of the team despite many failing to bring their best game over the weekend.

The 48-year-old also “tipped his hat” to his European counterpart Thomas Bjorn, who led the team to a memorable victory — with most of the American players conceding they were outplayed throughout the weekend in Paris.

“I realise the brunt of it is going to be on my plate but I have every confidence in those 12 guys,” Furyk said, as per the Guardian. “I would take them right back into another Ryder Cup if I could. It was an honour to serve as their captain.”

“The course set-up was very good on a golf course they [Europe] know very well. But at the end of the day their captain did a better job than I did and I tip my cap off to him,” the US team captain added.