The elephant in the room just waddled out of the exit door.
Tiger Woods’ absence from the US Ryder Cup team at Gleneagles is an all-round winner for them, and a loser for Europe.
What? The greatest player ever, not playing for the USA? How can this not be anything but an outright disaster for Team Tom?
Well, it’s not. The first issue is Tiger WAS the greatest player ever, right about the time he last played in a winning US Ryder Cup team, which was in 1999.
Right now, is he among the top 12 players available to Watson? You’d have to say, given the last 12 months which even takes in the tail-end of his remarkable run January to August last year, the answer is no.
The main reason is injury, and after two months of misinformation and denying it against all the obvious evidence available watching him play, Tiger has finally accepted he should take the rest of the season off to rest his ailing back.
But he’s played for the last month – despite trying to pass this one off as “a new injury”, nobody’s buying it – with the same problem. Why couldn’t he press on for another month?
It’s likely Tiger came back because the Open and the PGA – and representing the sponsors of his own tournament, the Quicken Loans Invitational – were things that he really wanted to do.
He really thought, even quarter-fit, he had a chance to win those two majors. This ongoing delusion he has about his own superhuman abilities and that he terrifies the rest of the golfing world simply by being there – maybe true 10 years ago – has been thoroughly disabused in the last month.
In contrast, he has no love at all for the Ryder Cup. It’s been little more than an irritation to him all his days, as his extraordinarily modest record in the event shows. Captain after captain has attempted to accommodate him and engender the formidable competitive urge he has playing for himself, to no result.
So dropping out, primarily, saves him coming to cold Scotland in late September to play an event he doesn’t get paid for and doesn’t even like.
Meanwhile, Tom Watson is off the hook.
He’s saved the furore of not picking Tiger. He’s saved picking him and trying to make this non-team player into one for a weekend. He’s saved having to explain why Woods is being left out of a series – most likely foursomes – when the truth is it’s because Tiger can’t be trusted to hit a straight drive.
He’s saved one almighty, Tiger-sized distraction from now until the final putt drops. The classy Mr Watson is not given to extreme displays of emotion but I’d be surprised if he didn’t privately greet Tiger’s announcement with a huge sigh of relief and a fist-pump.
The truth about Tiger’s involvement or lack thereof in the Ryder Cup is shown by the bookies’ reaction – the odds didn’t even blink.
In contrast, Europe and Paul McGinley have to be worse off. It doesn’t harm the overall event that much – few tickets will be handed back because there’s no Tiger.
The corporate element is long sold out. A few paparrazzi and picture desk editors will be disappointed they don’t get a nice pic of Tiger and his squeeze Lindsay Vonn at the Gala Dinner, but he didn’t bring a date for Celtic Manor or Medinah, so it might not have happened anyway.
But the US team room is going to be more united. Watson’s authority has been strengthened. McGinley, meanwhile, finds Europe’s traditional and comfortable role as underdog completely handed to the Americans.
It may not matter. Europe look strong and have considerable home advantage.
But funny things happen in Ryder Cups. Just remember the last one.