Woods would accept wild-card pick for Ryder Cup

World number one Tiger Woods has admitted that he would accept being a wild-card pick for the US Ryder Cup team, but has targeted qualifying for the team outright.

Woods has endured a torrid time of it on the golf course this year, with the damaging revelations about his private life clearly having an effect on his golf game.

He reached a new low last weekend when finishing tied for 78^th in a field of 80 players with a total of +18 at the Bridgestone Invitational, a tournament he has won seven times in the past.

Woods was in danger of surrendering his spot at the top of the world rankings to Phil Mickelson, but Mickelson could only finish tied for 46^th after a 78 on the final day, meaning that Woods remains as number one for the time being.

His chances of being an automatic selection for the US Ryder Cup team remain in doubt, however, as he currently lies in tenth place on the Ryder Cup standings list, with the top eight golfers qualifying for automatic selection for Corey Pavin’s side.

Ahead of the US PGA at Whistling Straits this week, Woods was asked if he would take a captain’s pick from Corey Pavin and replied, “Yes.”

“Hopefully I won’t be a pick. I would like to be able to play myself onto that team,” he added.

Woods admitted that he has been affected by matters in his private life and said that he is surprised he was able to hold it together for so long.

“To be honest, I thought I would have been here [playing poorly] a little bit sooner with all that is going on,” Woods said.

“Somehow I’ve been able to play a little bit better than I thought for a stretch and then it finally caught up with me last week.”

There has been speculation that Woods has been working with Justin Rose’s coach Sean Foley in an effort to turn his game around and he admitted that he might work with Foley in the future.

“Certainly it’s a possibility, no doubt,” he said.

“But there’s also a lot of other coaches out there that’s a possibility as well.

“I wanted to have him take a look at it today on video so I can take a look at it and that’s what we did.

“I’m heading in the right direction, so I’m pretty excited about that.”