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© St. Petersburg Times, published September 25, 2002
SUTTON COLDFIELD, England -- Never mind. Tiger says he was just kidding.
Tiger Woods created a mini-uproar in Europe last week when he suggested at the American Express Championship in Ireland that there were "a million reasons" why he would rather win that tournament than the Ryder Cup.
He was referring to the $1-million first-place check, which he eventually won. There is no prize money at the Ryder Cup. Instead, the players are given funds to distribute to charities.
For Woods, who makes an estimated $60-million a year with his endorsements, the comments didn't go over well.
"I was trying to be funny," Woods said Tuesday at The Belfry, where he played a practice round. "And obviously things were taken way out of context. And that's what happens if you just read it. You say, 'Oh, my God.' But if you actually saw me on videotape and how I said it, you would say, 'Oh, okay. I understand.' "
Woods said Tuesday that you can't compare winning an individual tournament and winning a team event such as the Ryder Cup.
U.S. team captain Curtis Strange said most players would rather win an individual event.
"To me, it was an unfair question," Strange said. "They're different animals. Stroke play, individual tournament, match play, team event, teammates. It's really an unfair question, and when you try to answer it honestly, I think you get in trouble. I think we know when Tiger Woods plays, he's ready to play, so he's the least of my concerns."
Said Hal Sutton: "I think anybody would be hard pressed to say that the man is not trying to win every time he puts a tee in the ground. I think he wants to win every tournament that he plays."
TIGER AND CALC: Strange has not made it official, but indications are he is leaning toward putting Woods and Mark Calcavecchia together in Friday morning's foursomes. Calcavecchia has played the format four times and never has lost.
"If it happens ... who wouldn't want it to happen?" Calcavecchia said. "(Woods) played great again (Tuesday). He's obviously swinging at it great, which he does most every day. So there's a different kind of pressure of being his partner in the sense that you want to play so well to try to help him out.
"But on the other hand, I've also got the mind-set going that whether it's him or whoever, I've got 11 other teammates in this deal, and I don't have to take the whole load of this thing on myself."
JESPER JOLTED: An earthquake of 4.8 on the Richter Scale might not sound like much, but it was pretty unsettling to those who endured it Monday in central England. Jesper Parnevik was among them.
"I was very happy to find out it was an earthquake," said Parnevik, a Swede who lives in Jupiter. "And being in Manhattan when September 11th happened, I still have very paranoid thoughts. So that was my first thought, actually, because it was a big bang. My bedroom table just kept smacking into the window, and the bed was all over the place. I've never been in an earthquake before, but it was very scary, I thought."
ON THE REBOUND?: Like several players on both sides, Ireland's Paul McGinley has had a trying season. He missed the cut in three majors and has two top-10 finishes. And he saw his world ranking slip from 42nd to 70th.
"It's been a disappointing season, no doubt about it," McGinley said. "And it has played on my mind. I'm in a situation where I've made the team, and I feel I deserved to have made the team. I made it quite comfortably when I made it (last year). I deserve to be here. In the last four or five weeks, I've played quite reasonably; I haven't produced the scores, but (I've) hit the ball better. I'm really looking forward to being in this situation of being in a team event."