Woods’s destroyers last night were not his army of former mistresses but two baby-faced assassins, in Lee Westwood and Luke Donald.
Europe’s two most consistent ball-strikers formed the type of irresistible blend to punish every one of Woods’s errors, condemning the world No 1 and partner Steve Stricker to the embarrassing scoreline of four down after nine holes in the evening foursomes.
Amid all the theatre of Europe’s mighty Ryder Cup surge at Celtic Manor, the eclipse of Woods was the most telling sub-plot. Until 5pm it had seemed as if this event, which had brought him two restorative victories in Stricker’s company, could come to signal a watershed in his tumultuous year.
But the late turnaround, in the face of Westwood and Donald’s consummate hitting, was a grotesque aberration — Woods was all over the place, compiling the matchplay equivalent of his 18-over-par implosion at Akron in August.
Woods should have sensed trouble when he and his sidekick lost the first two holes to the Europeans to birdies, but still he uncoiled himself into his shots with an alarming audacity.
On the treacherous sixth, where water lurks all around, the sensible approach was to aim to the heart of the green but Woods, with one mighty swish, tried to be heroic and ended up depositing his ball into the lake.
Another ugly dropped shot followed, before a belated birdie at the ninth. Four down, the scoreboard read: it was a sight to test his composure, and Stricker’s patience.
It was sad to witness, in terms of Woods’s personal road back from the sex scandal, since he had hinted here at the beginnings of a revival of his game. His first drive was way beyond Westwood’s, a perfectly straight, brutally long bullet, suggesting that he had turned a corner. He had shown an improved accuracy in his iron play, too, and in Stricker he had found a complement for his form on the fairways.
But clearly Woods continues to struggle with his mechanics, analysing the angle of the downswing and plane of the shoulders every time he sets up over the ball. Not all is well on the greens, either: as the second session of foursomes extended deep into the evening, Woods dragged an eight-foot putt he would normally have drained as he and Stricker lost the third of their five holes at the sixth.
This was the contest the 45,000-strong crowd had waited through the deluge to see, as Westwood and Donald built a momentum to pulverise even a solid American pairing.
Overnight, Woods and Stricker’s one consolation was that they remained, with their two opening victories, the only partnership with a perfect record. Woods, with seven Ryder Cup wins in 20 before arriving in South Wales, had been thought to view the event as an irksome distraction from his pursuit of individual glories, but yesterday he seemed to embrace the team ethic once more.
At least, he has embraced any system under which he is manacled to Stricker.
The pair were unbeaten in four matches at last November’s President’s Cup in California and proved again, when brought together by US captain Corey Pavin, that they had a formidable dynamic between them.
“It’s not a bad deal, is it,” said Woods, asked if he would like to have Stricker putting for him every day. “His stroke is so good. It’s fun to watch. All you have to do is put him in position, and he’s got that 'go-in’ look. Even puts that don’t go in, it’s like, 'How did that miss?’”
Stricker repaid the praise with interest, saying: “The bottom line is, we’re just comfortable with one another. We enjoy being out there with each other. Even though he hits it a lot further than I do, our games are very similar. We putt well and chip well, and he’s a great iron player. So he’s always got opportunities. He hits some unbelievable iron shots, and fortunately I’ve been knocking a couple of the putts in. We gel well together, and I hope we can do it some more.”
It was quite a eulogy for Woods, for whom Pavin had found the right foil.
Who better than Stricker, the quiet man from Wisconsin? But as darkness ended a front nine of mayhem and misery, the mutual backslapping had ceased, and Woods appeared all alone once more.
