Tiger Woods – PNC Championship / Mike Ehrmann/GettyImages
Keegan Bradley was just announced as the 2025 US Ryder Cup team captain and that news shocked the entire golf world. The consensus was that Tiger Woods would be the selection with the event coming back to New York, but as new reports surfaced it turns out that Tiger turned the offer down.
You might be wondering why he would ever do that. The Ryder Cup in New York at Bethpage Black is about as iconic as it can get, so why wouldn’t Tiger want that as part of his legacy?
Thankfully we don’t need to speculate as Tiger Woods has already commented on why he turned down the Ryder Cup captaincy.
Tiger Woods shares why he turned down the 2025 US Ryder Cup Captaincy
“With my new responsibilities to the Tour and time commitments involved, I felt like I would not be able to commit the time to Team USA and the players required as a captain. That does not mean I wouldn’t want to captain a team in the future. If and when I feel it is the right time, I will put my hat in the ring for this committee to decide.”
Tigers’ response above is as straightforward as it can possibly get. Essentially, Tiger feels he’s too busy right now to devote the amount of time he feels is necessary to be the Ryder Cup team captain. And if that’s his true reason then I commend him for turning the offer down.
While I do believe everything Tiger said above, I think there’s a lot more behind his decision to turn the offer down than what he shared.
More reasons why Tiger Woods turned down Ryder Cup captaincy
Tiger wants to be a player captain
One other reason why I think Tiger turned down the captaincy is because he wants to be a player captain. This is what Tiger did for the 2019 Presidents Cup when Tiger arguably was the best player on the team that year. So I imagine he wants to also be a player when he captains the US Ryder Cup team.
But there’s one problem, Tiger knows his game isn’t good enough right now. So I believe he wants to wait until he believes his game is good enough so he can be a player and captain simultaneously.
Be the leader when the US FINALLY wins in Europe again
Are you ready for one of the wildest stats you’ll ever hear? The US hasn’t won the Ryder Cup in Europe since 1993. That means Tiger has never defeated a European team in Europe in his career.
This stat is always a major talking point when the Ryder Cup is in Europe, and it surely will be again when the 2027 Ryder Cup rolls around. So I think Tiger wants to wait for 2027 so he can lead the US to victory in Europe for the first time in what feels like forever, which in turn would become one of the greatest accomplishments of his career.
Tiger is close friends with owner of 2027 Ryder Cup course
And the final reason I think Tiger will wait until 2027 to be the US Ryder Cup captain is because of the golf course hosting the event. The 2027 Ryder Cup is at Adare Manor Golf Course in Ireland, a course Tiger is extremely familiar with.
His close friend J.P. McManus owns the course and it’s a course Tiger plays quite often. Most years Tiger plays in the member-member with McManus at this course, so it’s safe to say Tiger is extremely knowledgeable on the layout of the course.
So while all the reasons Tiger shared publically about being too busy to be captain this year is likely accurate, adding in these other details may paint the entire picture.
So I’m putting it out there now, I think Tiger will be the US Ryder Cup captain in 2027 so he can add to his legacy even more by defeating Europe on foreign soil for the first time since 1993 at a golf course he’s very familiar with.
