Presidents Cup: Tiger Woods taking heat from…Paul McGinley?

Presidents Cup captain Tiger Woods made the obvious choice to pick himself as a player for his squad in Australia. So why is a former European Ryder Cup captain blasting him for it?

The Presidents Cup is right around the corner and it’s heating up due to Paul McGinley suggesting Tiger Woods recuse himself from the U.S. Captaincy.

Let’s get a couple of things straight. Paul McGinley is Irish. Ireland is not eligible to be in the Presidents Cup. It’s all the countries in the world (minus Europe) versus the United States. He isn’t involved in this battle in any way, shape, or form.

McGinley is a three-time Ryder Cup player and was the winning European Captain in the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles. Impressive. But again, none of this has anything to do with the Presidents Cup.

So why throw shade at Tiger? It’s curious, but there is a back story. McGinley apparently isn’t much of a Tiger Woods fan.

Before last year’s British Open at Royal Portrush, McGinley publically criticized Tiger in The Telegraph for not preparing better for the tournament.

“I don’t know what’s going on with Tiger,” McGinley, here as a Sky Sports analyst, said. “His schedule doesn’t make a lot of sense – in fact, to play just one tournament outside the majors makes no sense at all to me, unless he’s got something else going on that we don’t know about.”

McGinley went on to say, “I don’t know whether winning the Masters is a factor, because winning shouldn’t take that much out of you.”

It seems strange to question the guy who just won the Masters, his 15th major victory. Perhaps Tiger has earned the benefit of the doubt to prepare in his own manner?

McGinley also sided with Sergio Garcia in 2013 when Sergio said of a brewing feud with Tiger that perhaps they could settle their differences over dinner where he’d serve Tiger fried chicken.

Sergio apologized but McGinley thought he’d throw in his unrequested two cents.

The BBC reported McGinley’s appearance on a radio show. “I think there’s a personality clash and they don’t particularly like each other’s company,” McGinley told Radio 5 live’s Sportsweek program. “For me, it’s no big deal.”

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Perhaps the question is simple. What’s the problem with Paul McGinley? He obviously doesn’t like Tiger. That’s fine. It’s a cottage industry. Plenty of people can never forgive Tiger’s indiscretions in his marriage and his hard-earned reputation for being overly-competitive.

But interjecting yourself into the Presidents Cup signals a dogged obsession with The Big Cat that reeks of…well, cattiness.

Tiger Woods is a top ten player. Any other Captain would have chosen him. The fact that he’s both Captain and player only adds to the intrigue. It will also likely add to the viewership. I think we can all admit that Tiger playing is much more exciting than Tiger jabbering into a walkie-talkie.

McGinley’s side-eye tweet about America dictating succession planning for future Ryder Cup Captains in 2014 feels like a tenuous (at best) rationale to take a shot at Tiger some five years later.

It’s difficult to crawl inside the mind of Paul McGinley, but if one were to attempt such a feat, they’d apparently find a large chunk cordoned-off with a big neon sign reading “Rent Free – Property of Tiger Woods.”