Els issues Woods warning to Europe

Open champion Ernie Els has warned Europe to expect a fired-up Tiger Woods at The Belfry later this month.

Woods will play his third Ryder Cup with a dismal record of only three wins in his previous 10 games and Els suspects that professional pride will be his spur when America defend the trophy.

“I lost all five games at the last Presidents Cup and I can’t wait for next year’s match in South Africa,” he said. “I’m really going to be up for it because of that experience.

“I suspect the same will be true of Tiger now. He’ll know that he has not done what people expect him to in the Ryder Cup so far – and what he expects to himself.

“The four majors are his priority each year, but professional pride does come into it and I would imagine he’s going to be a pivotal player at The Belfry.”

Els remembers the difference he saw in the world number one at the 2000 Presidents Cup compared to the 1998 match in Australia.

The Americans, captained by Jack Nicklaus, were hammered 20 1/2-11 1/2 by the International side at Royal Melbourne, with Woods losing three of his five games there just as he had at Valderrama on his Ryder Cup debut.

In Washington the United States had an even more crushing 21 1/2-10 1/2 victory, Woods winning two and losing two with partner Notah Begay in the fourballs and foursomes, then beating Vijay Singh in the singles.

Els, partnering Singh, was on the receiving end in both foursomes, the second of them a six and five hammering.

“Tiger was really on his game and very aggressive in his approach,” he remembers. “In Australia we were the ones really psyched up and a lot of them just wanted to get home for Christmas a couple of weeks later.”

Els will be at his Wentworth home during the Ryder Cup. His wife Liezl is expecting their second child on October 14, three days before the start of the Cisco World Match Play championship at the course.

The field for that has yet to be announced, but Els has already said he has received an invitation and will be attempting to win the title for a fourth time.

Ian Woosnam is the defending champion and 22-year-old Justin Rose is almost certain to be one of the debutants after a season in which he has won four times already and risen into the world’s top 40.

Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington are favourites to be the other British and Irish players, but whether any of the American Ryder Cup team will return to Europe for that remains to be seen.

Woods played in 1998 and lost to Mark O’Meara in the final, but has not been back since. New US PGA champion Rich Beem – not in the Ryder Cup – is a possibility, although it would mean a second trip across the Atlantic in the space of a few weeks for him.

Beem plays in this week’s German Masters in Cologne and then the American Express world championship at Mount Juliet in Ireland next week.