Friday, October 01, 2010

Tiger Woods missing a father figure

FROM THE HERALDSCOTLAND.COM WEBSITE
Douglas Lowe at Celtic Manor
All eyes will be on the Tiger once again when the Ryder Cup swings into action today, and it is this unrelenting attention that is hindering a return to his former glory days according to Bernard Gallacher, the three-time European Ryder Cup captain.
Tiger Woods, according to Gallacher, one of six Scots to have been Ryder Cup captain, is struggling to rebuild his life because he doesn’t have a father figure in the same way as Wayne Rooney has Sir Alex Ferguson. Gallacher suggested former coach Butch Harmon, pictured by Cal Carson Golf Agency, is the man to pull the world No.1 out of the doldrums.
Because of the intense worldwide scrutiny Woods is subjected to, Gallacher said you had to multiply Rooney’s issues by a thousand to understand the pressure that the American is under – and he was trying to deal with it on his own following the sex scandal that ended in divorce this summer.
“He doesn’t have a strong mentor, somebody who knows him, to help him through it,” noted Gallacher, who is working for BBC Radio at Celtic Manor this week. “I was hoping he might go back to Butch Harmon because Butch is like a father figure and he could also help him with his game.
“I don’t really know what’s happened there. It’s extraordinary that despite the fact that Butch looks willing, Woods has never asked for help even though he started with Butch when he was 15. It’s not as if they’ve fallen out and Tiger wouldn’t go back to him. Butch could help him off the course as well.”
Gallacher said that too much was being made of Woods’ apparent poor record in the Ryder Cup, pointing out that he had lost just one singles match, to Italian Costantino Rocca, in his first Ryder Cup at Valderrama in 1997. “He beat Robert Karlsson at the K Club and Karlsson was one of our top players,” he said.
In a grand total of 20 four-balls and foursomes outings over the five Ryder Cups he has played, Woods has had no fewer than 11 partners and amassed just seven wins and one halved match, but Gallacher is still inclined to the view that it is Woods who has been let down, perhaps the result of his indomitable presence having a greater adverse effect on his own team than the opposition.
“Personally I’ve always thought he’s played well ibut he has proved that you need a strong partner to win in four-balls and foursomes,” said Gallacher. “It needs two people on their game. One player, no matter how good he is, needs someone supportive with him.”

Gallacher, meanwhile, praised Colin Montgomerie’s captaincy thus far and said that if he was to offer him one piece of advice it would be to keep an open mind when it comes to choosing his pairings, illustrating that view with the Sam Torrance-Rocca pairing in three matches during the victorious 1995 campaign at Oak Hill.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to play them together,” he said. “But when you look about and see some players looking a bit tired it can sometimes be a case of who is left standing. If you have confidence in your team you can put out a pairing like that.

“Monty says he already knows his pairings. Well that may be for the opening day but it might go out of the window after that. He’ll have to see how each player is. Some of them might be affected by nerves.

“I’ve been very impressed with Colin so far. He’s almost gone up a gear for the media, which is good. It is the opposite to Nick Faldo, who always tries to keep things to himself, and I think Monty is doing a good job keeping the players relaxed.”

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