I heard a very interesting theory this weekend with respect to Woods. A Scotsman offered it up: most on the PGA Tour like and/or respects Woods very much. The same cannot be said about Woods and while some may hide their true feelings about Woods, Woods does not hide his disdain/disrespect for those he does not care for.
If that is true, it could go a little ways in explaining why the Ryder Cup teams Woods has been part of have won only 1 Cup.
David:
I think you'r close to the reasoning -- some mine, some shared by others -- why this team succeeded and others with Tiger did not.
My own theory -- golf is a highly individualistic sport. None of these guys (leaving out for a minute the whole sponsorship angle) get a salary; they earn all their money. Earn not enough, and you're shipped to the minors. The only way to earn enough is to keep beating the same guys, week in and week out, for the better part of nine months. A think a lot of these guys tire of the grind -- not the pursuit of winning, for they are all competitive and want to win, but the nature of the Tour, and how it's set up, with the (largely) same cast of characters going after 1st, or 2nd, or a top 10, or making the cut, with only the venue changed.
By the same token, I think most athletes want to compete as a team -- they want to accomplish something together, as part of a shared mission, with a common goal. That's why so many of these guys compete so hard, and want to make, the Ryder Cup team. It's why they embrace the notion of competing together, as teammates (even when they play badly -- as in RC's of 02, 04, and 06). I think in some respects many of the veteran guys -- Furyk, Mickelson, Cink -- may even feel worse about being part of a lot of losing RC teams than losing any one particular major (OK. Mickelson at Winged Foot is an exception...).
That is, all but one guy. And that's Tiger. He's not just the best golfer on the planet, he makes the conversation about who's #1 sort of absurd. He doesn't just win, he beats his opponents into submission -- very deliberately, I'd argue. He may not win everything, or every major, but it's no shock that he's never lost a major in which he's led after three rounds. He's just wired differently than the rest of these guys.
So when it comes to Ryder Cup time, I think Tiger has a tough adjustment. He may like and respect his RC teammates, but in the long run, I'm not sure he views Anthony Kim as a guy who can help his team win the Ryder Cup, in the way that Mickelson might. In the long run (or taking the long view), all of his teammates are simply roadkill he has to dodge in order to accomplish what he was put on Earth to do, which is break Jack's majors record. And I think his teammates struggle to adjust to him -- he's the elephant in the room. (Some on this thread have said that, of course, no captain could ever sit down Tiger during a RC match. So far, none have. Why not? I think they are intimidated into playing him -- by Tiger's presence, by their own fear of the reaction it would engender, by the second-guessing that would ensue.)
Tiger's record in golf, to me, demonstrates that he can pretty much do whatever he wants to do -- win the Masters by 12 strokes at the age of 21? Win the US Open by 15 strokes at a diabolical Pebble Beach? Win four majors in a row? Win a US Open on one leg? Break Jack/Snead/whomever's records?
Oddly, his own record in the Ryder Cup shows his inability to will himself to similar accomplishments. I think he cares about the RC, likes playing it, enjoys his teammates and the camaraderie, and wishes the U.S. had won more than one RC that he played it. But in the end, I think he cares about it less than his own individual accomplishments.