Tiger Woods Denied Bryson DeChambeau’s Urgent Request on His Ryder Cup Debut to Teach Him Valuable Lesson

Bryson DeChambeau still remembers his Ryder Cup baptism and the nerves that came with it. Paris, 2018 — his first appearance on one of golf’s most intimidating stages, and of all people, he was paired with Tiger Woods. The grandstands were heaving; they were in enemy territory. There was the loud chanting of fans. And a young DeChambeau was in the midst of all that, thinking maybe — just maybe — the Big Cat would help him take the edge off. Spoiler alert: he didn’t.

DeChambeau narrated the incident that took place almost eight years ago, on the Golf Channel. “I asked Tiger, ‘OK, so who’s in the first tee shot?’ Kind of trying to, like, come on, like, help me out. And he goes, ‘You’re in the first tee shot.’ And I’m like, ‘uh, yes, sir. OK. I guess I’m in the first tee shot.’ Luckily, I hit it in the fairway, but that was the most nervous I’d ever been hitting a tee shot.”

This moment captures something that many others have wrestled with for decades. Tiger’s stoicism. Where others might reassure a rookie like DeChambeau, Woods stuck true to his infamous cold and neutral personality on the course. This has been consistent with the way he operates in team rooms, practice ranges, and fairways.

Former Ryder Cup captain Davis Love III once recalled this dynamic. Love shares how Woods’s personality emanates from his effort to carry the whole team on his shoulders. “When you feel pressure because it’s your own teammate, that doesn’t really help.” For Love it explained why so many pairings with Woods faltered. This pattern showed itself in Paris 2018, where Woods and DeChambeau ultimately lost 5 & 4 to Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood. The USA ultimately lost to Europe, with the match being remembered as one of the toughest losses for Team America: 17 1⁄2–10 1⁄2.

At the same time, others believe this intensity is simply ingrained in Woods, something he can’t turn off. Paul Azinger, who paired with him in the 2002 Ryder Cup, described this in simpler terms. “Tiger is an intimidator even if he doesn’t try to be one.” He recalled a feeling that there was a standard Woods expected of him, just as he expected of Tiger, and neither could quite meet it. This made him feel suffocated when it should have felt liberating, considering he was playing alongside the greatest.

Now, one can say that Woods, in DeChambeau’s instance, was trying to teach a lesson. To stay focused on his own game and not rely on others. To not get bogged down due to pressure and emerge as the better player overall. And this can be seen in how the American plays now, with his powerful swings and hard drive. The Mad Scientist has indeed come a long way. And he has improved so much that he has been planning hilariously to take down the Europeans later this month at Bethpage Black.

Anyway, coming back to Tiger Woods, these intimidating stories were not just limited to the Ryder Cup. Writers and fans who observed Woods often were struck by the same stone-faced aura. At the 2012 PGA Championship, Adam Harnett described Woods as “stone-faced, only looking straight, no eye contact, no talking, no autographs.” Although Harnett believes this isn’t arrogance, but rather a necessity. Woods faced distractions no one else could imagine due to his influence in the game, and his solution was radical focus. “His distractions were greater than any other player out there.”

This trademark intensity picked up a name on the golf circuit: The ‘Tiger Stare.’ Those who have experienced it said that it could rattle even the most seasoned professionals. Arron Oberholser once admitted Woods looked “through your soul” and left him scrambling to “re-gather” himself mid-round of a match. Hunter Mahan, on the other hand, described it more broadly on the Par 3 podcast: “There was an intimidation, there was an intensity that was very unknown to everybody… everyone was very uncomfortable.”

However, this also led to accusations of how he made others feel ‘inferior’ to him. Although murmurs like these still echo through golf’s storytelling, there’s actually a reason Woods behaved this way.

The reason behind Tiger’s cold demeanour

Tiger Woods began working with sports psychologist Dr. Jay Brunza when he was just 13. Brunza, a close friend of Earl Woods, introduced techniques like subliminal tapes and hypnosis that helped Tiger develop the ability to lock into a ‘zone’ on the course. Though Woods has said he no longer uses formal hypnosis, he credits those formative years with hardwiring a level of focus that became second nature. Combined with his natural talent and the disciplined environment built by his parents, that early training produced the mental toughness many often misread as coldness or detachment.

Woods himself has always been blunt about what this means. Speaking on this topic once, he laid out his philosophy in stark terms: “I can’t control you. The only thing I can control is me. Now, if I do this more efficiently than you, if you get intimidated that’s your own f—ing issue.” To him, this is not intimidation, but rather a byproduct of a mental system that is designed to shield him from noise and distraction.