The Tour wants to revamp its schedule and become scarcer and more fan-centric, and Tiger Woods is leading the charge as the head of the Future Committee. Surprisingly, Woods’s dedication to fixing the PGA Tour’s future may be the very thing that fractures Team USA’s Ryder Cup chances.

“I haven’t made my decision yet,” Woods said about his 2027 Ryder Cup captaincy. “I’m trying to figure out what we’re trying to do with our Tour. That’s been driving me hours upon hours every day, and I’m trying to figure out if I can actually do our team, our Team USA, our players, and everyone that’s going to be involved in the Ryder Cup justice with my time.”

In Woods’s defense, he is trying to serve literally everyone. Be it players, media partners, sponsors, or fans. The goal is to make the PGA Tour the best competitive product and still have room for development. This is taking Woods’s major time, causing him to question his availability as Ryder Cup captain. A similar thing happened in 2024.

In July 2024, Woods declined the 2025 captaincy for Bethpage Black, citing PGA Tour Policy Board obligations, but the 2027 Ryder Cup sits on European soil, at Adare Manor in Ireland, where the United States has not won since 1993. His availability as a leader becomes more important.

For Scottie Scheffler and the core of the American team, a captain who has not committed is a problem they cannot plan around. Heading into hostile territory without settled leadership is precisely the kind of institutional failure that turns a difficult assignment into an impossible one.

News served to you like never before!

Prefer us on Google, To get latest news on feed

Prefer Us on Google

When Woods stepped aside in 2024, the PGA of America turned to Keegan Bradley. Bradley had never served as a vice captain. He admitted afterward that he had to learn a lot on the fly. Team USA lost 15-13 at home. Europe claimed its first away win since 2012. Bradley stood at the podium and said it was his fault.

Europe has had no such problem. Luke Donald won in Rome in 2023. He won at Bethpage in 2025. Eleven players from his 2023 squad returned. Four vice captains came back. That is continuity. That is an institution that knows what it is doing. Team USA, by contrast, has no captain, no timeline, and no named successor if Woods declines again, putting winning in jeopardy.

Here is what makes 2027 different from every prior offer, which can be summed up in 3 words: Ireland, Adare Manor, and J.P. McManus.

McManus owns the estate. He is also a long-standing personal friend of Woods. Veteran caddie Billy Foster, speaking on The Rick Shiels Golf Show, identified that relationship as the specific reason 2027 carries weight that no prior captaincy offer has.

“I’m sure he’ll do it at some stage,” Foster said. “Obviously, he’s a big friend of JP McManus. So, yeah, it could well be.”

If Woods is ever going to captain, this is the venue: hostile European soil, a course owned by a close friend. The case writes itself. Yet the same governance machine that consumed his 2024 decision is still running.

Foster’s broader point cuts sharper than sentiment. Every year Woods waits, the gap between his era and Scheffler’s generation widens. The team room of 2027 will be full of players who grew up watching him, not alongside him. That still counts for something. It may not count forever.

The leadership vacuum that uncertainty creates is already visible in the players who need direction most.

Tiger Woods’s Ryder Cup absence leaves Team USA without an answer

The 2025 result exposed something deeper than course setup errors and questionable pairings. Scottie Scheffler, the best golfer on the planet by almost every individual measure and a four-time major champion as of 2026, went 0-4 in his first four matches at Bethpage. He beat a spent Rory McIlroy in the Sunday singles.

One point. Three days. Let that sink in.

Team formats demand something different from stroke play dominance. What they demand, above all, is a captain who provides the architecture of belief before the first ball is struck. Someone whose presence sets a standard that 12 players organize themselves around. Woods did exactly that at Royal Melbourne in 2019 at the Presidents Cup. The team was trailing before the final day’s singles matches, but they won six and tied four of the 12 matches to win the competition 16-14.

His record as a leader, when he has chosen to lead, is not in question. His availability is. The PGA of America has asked. The answer has not come. Who captains the team US at Adore Manor remains to be seen.