TROON, Scotland – Tiger Woods said Tuesday that he turned down the U.S. Ryder Cup captaincy because he’d be doing a disservice to the event and the American players by not being able to devote his full attention to it.
The PGA of America announced the stunning move last week that it was appointing 38-year-old Keegan Bradley to the role despite him not playing in the event in a decade and not having any prior experience as a captain or assistant captain.
For months, it was clear that the PGA had homed in on Woods as the 2025 captain, but he told outgoing PGA CEO Seth Waugh that he couldn’t fully commit to the duties because of his other responsibilities. Woods, 48, is a part of the transaction subcommittee that is currently engaged with the Saudi Public Investment Fund in a potential investment in the PGA Tour that would help unify the sport, as well as a co-founder of the simulator league, TGL, that will launch in early 2025.
“I told Seth that I just didn’t feel like I could do the job properly,” Woods said. “I couldn’t devote the time. I barely had enough time to do what I’m doing now … and add all that concurrently going on at exactly the same time, there’s only so many hours in the day. I just didn’t feel like I would be doing the captaincy or the players on Team USA justice if I was the captain with everything I have to do.”
Woods called it a “very difficult decision” but was happy to see the PGA tab Bradley, who was left off the 2023 team by then-captain Zach Johnson. The Americans lost handily in Rome to extend a run of futility overseas that extends to 1993.
“I think Keegan is going to be a great leader,” Woods said. “He’s very passionate about what he does. He’s very passionate about the event. I think that this is going to probably be a turnover year for us for the captaincies, whether it’s the captain itself or his vice captains. I think this is the natural progression, one we’ve been looking forward to, and I think it’s that year.”
Bradley said in his introductory news conference that he’d spoken several times with Woods over the past few weeks, including earlier that morning before he was officially unveiled as captain. Bradley said that he looked forward to Woods continuing to be involved as much or as little as he wanted. When asked Tuesday whether he’d consider a vice-captaincy role under Bradley, Woods quickly replied: “He hasn’t asked me.”
Though he turned down the role for 2025, Woods said he’d be open to the 2027 captaincy at Adare Manor in Ireland if his schedule clears up.
“I’ll put my hat in the ring again when I have more time and I feel like I can devote myself to a Ryder Cup,” he said. “As of right now, I’ve got so many different things I’m juggling and trying to get right at the same time for all the players that are a part of the PGA Tour. It’s one of those things where you just can’t get it wrong.”
On that Tour-PIF front, Woods said he was pleased with the progress of the deal and that he viewed his involvement in the mega-deal as a way to give back to the game.
“Things are moving and things are changing; it’s evolving each and every day,” he said. “There’s emails and chains and texts and ideas that we bounce back and forth from both sides. There’s a good interchange of ideas and thoughts of how the game could look like going forward.”
