Golf: Tiger Woods Injured

Tiger Woods may not play in the American Express World Golf Championship, which starts at Mount Juliet, near Kilkenny, today and he may get married next week in Barbados. However, as a bet that is probably not a win double, depending as it does on a "perhaps-possibly-maybe" scenario for the first part and pure rumour and speculation for the second.

Woods has a pain between the shoulder blades that yesterday restricted him to seven holes of practice. He got it sleeping awkwardly on a flight from New York to Orlando and he will not know whether he can play, and compete, or not, until his warming-up session this morning.

"That will determine it," he said yesterday. "I could have played all 18 today but it would have been tough. I've had other injuries in my career but this one - you just can't swing a golf club."

As for getting married, Woods admitted that the assembled hacks would be the last people he would tell. "All I can say," he said, "is that I'm getting married in the future. I've narrowed it down to that."

The rumours emanate from the unrelated facts that he has three weeks off after this event, that his Irish friends J P McManus and Dermot Desmond own the Sandy Lane hotel in Barbados where it is believed the ceremony will take place and that an Irish travel agent tried to book rooms there for next week and could not. Not much to go on but enough for a story in an Irish Sunday paper recently. "He didn't deny it, though, did he?" seemed to be the tone of hacks after Woods had left.

Woods has reportedly said this week that one of the ways he thinks American performance in the Ryder Cup can be improved is by the team being picked on the basis of one year's results rather than two and by him becoming a playing vice-captain and "doing what I can to make the team successful at the end of the week."

Ironic words, given that it was at this event two years ago that Woods demonstrated in the plainest possible fashion that he has not a clue about how the Ryder Cup works.

The first prize in this tournament then was $1m - now $1.2m (£666,000) - and it was played the week before the Ryder Cup at The Belfry. The then world No1 was asked the question: "What would be the more important to you, to win this week, or the Ryder Cup next week?" Woods answered: "Here, this week." When asked why, he said: "I can think of a million reasons why."

That last might have been dismissed as a flippant reply but because of the amazing import of the first part of the answer, the follow-up question was put to him: "Is it then no contest for you, the question of which is more important?" Woods said: "This is a big event. This is the best players in the world. You're playing stroke play on a great course, that's pretty important. I'm not saying that the Ryder Cup is not important, it's a completely different animal."

When further pursued, with the question: "Would it surprise you if most of the Europeans said they would rather win the Ryder Cup than here," Woods replied, "Yes, that would be surprising."

If there is a passage of words that more graphically illustrates the difference between the approach of the United States and that of Europe to the Ryder Cup, it has yet to be spoken, and if the Americans want to know where to start in their quest to win in Ireland in 2006, it is in altering prevailing attitudes of that sort.

If Woods were to withdraw here it would, on top of the absence of Vijay Singh, be a huge blow to the tournament. But there is a huge cast of stars remaining, led by Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke, Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia, and Davis Love III, more than enough for any tournament.