Tiger Woods Explains Decision to Turn Down 2025 U.S. Ryder Cup Captaincy

Woods said his time working on the PGA Tour's board precluded him from taking the job for Bethpage and that he's firmly behind Keegan Bradley's appointment.

Tiger Woods spoke at the British Open about why the 2025 Ryder Cup captaincy wasn't a good fit. / Jack Gruber-USA TODAY Sports

TROON, Scotland — Tiger Woods decision to turn down the U.S. Ryder Cup captaincy for 2025 ultimately came down to his belief that he would not be able to devote the necessary time to the post.

Woods, speaking for the first time on Tuesday since Keegan Bradley was named captain on July 8, said at Royal Troon that his duties as a member of the PGA Tour Policy Board and the dealings with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia were the main impediment.

“The decision was very difficult for me to make,” Woods said in advance of this week’s British Open. “My time has been so loaded with the Tour and everything and what we're trying to accomplish. I'm on so many different subcommittees that it just takes so much time in the day, and I'm always on calls.

“I told Seth (Waugh, the PGA of America retiring CEO) that I just didn't feel like I could do the job properly. I couldn't devote the time. I barely had enough time to do what I'm doing right now, and add in the TGL starts next year, as well as the Ryder Cup. You add all that together and then with our negotiations with the PIF, all that concurrently going on at exactly the same time, there's only so many hours in the day.

“I just didn't feel like I would be doing the captaincy or the players in Team USA justice if I was the captain with everything that I have to do.”

Woods said he was firmly behind Bradley’s appointment. The six-time PGA Tour winner was on the same Ryder Cup team as Woods in 2012 but has not been part of the competition since 2014.

“I think Keegan is going to be a great leader,” Woods said. “He's very passionate about what he does. He's very passionate about the event. I think that this is going to be probably a turnover year for us for the captaincies, whether it's the captain itself and his vice captains. I think this is the natural progression, one we've been looking forward to, and I think it's that year.”

Asked if he’d be interested in being a vice captain, Woods said that Bradley hasn't asked him.

But Bradley said last week he would embrace Woods in any way.

“I have told him he can be as involved as he wants to be,” Bradley said. “We haven't talked about vice captains, I haven't talked to vice captains with really anybody. So we, as players, we all look up to Tiger and his opinion means a lot to us. Being in team rooms with Tiger, the public doesn't realize how important this is to him. It's everything. He lives and breathes this event. I think it shows you how much he cares by turning this position down, because he didn't feel like he could put in what he needed to do with all of his responsibilities with what's going on with the Tour.

“I've been grateful—before I accepted this job I needed to talk to Tiger and I wanted to hear from him. We had a great conversation. I certainly need his input.”