Tiger Woods Confident Of Earning Ryder Cup Spot

Tiger Woods feels he is very close to making the 2018 Ryder Cup squad for the United States as one of captain Jim Furyk’s picks. It will be his first appearance in the biennial competition since 2012.

The 14-time major winner missed on being an automatic qualifier after finishing second to Brooks Koepka at the USPGA Championships, but his form over the last few months has put him in contention to be one of the captain’s four wildcard picks.

It is widely believed he will be among the three picks Furyk is set to announce Sept. 4 after his strong showing at the Open Championships and the USPGA. Woods, however, is already part of the team after he was named the vice-captain earlier in the year.

The American golfer indicated then he is keen to be on the team as a playing member and admitted he is close to realising his goal. Furyk admitted earlier this month it will be difficult to leave a player like Woods out of the team especially seeing his current form, and added he will look for an alternate vice-captain if the former world number one is one of his four picks.

"At the very beginning of the year, I told Jim I wanted to be a part of the team, not just as a vice-captain but as a player, and I'm very close to making that happen," Woods said Tuesday, as per Sky Sports.

"The interesting role here is that I'm a vice captain, so we're talking about myself in the third person a lot. So, that's one of the more interesting conversations we were having. … We were having a lot of fun with it, but I'm one of the guys on the shortlist. I want to be picked and I want to be part of the team,” he explained.

"It's been a long year and one of my goals was to make that team, because to be part of that team, you've got to be one of the 12 best players and I'm kind of trending towards that."

Woods is currently preparing to play the Northern Trust Open — the first of four FedEx Cup Playoff events in the next five weeks and the American confirmed he is planning to play all the events. It is the first time in five years that Woods in playing in the playoffs.

He admitted fatigue is a concern as the Ryder Cup will begin after the playoffs, but is confident he can push through without any concerns of an injury setback.

"I'm playing the first three right now and that should get me into Atlanta and on the back side is obviously The Ryder Cup," Woods said. “That is a lot of golf, so it's about pacing myself and making sure I don't practice too much and making sure my training schedule goes well.”

"One of the hardest things this year has been trying to find the right balance and, as the summer has gone on, I've got better and felt better, and this is a pretty important stretch,” the American added.