Tiger shuts down question about him captaining at next Ryder Cup

Don’t ask Tiger Woods about captaining the next U.S. Ryder Cup team.

There are more pressing matters to attend to.

“There's too much at stake with our tour to think about a Ryder Cup right now,” Woods said Tuesday during his pre-tournament press conference for the Hero World Challenge. “We have to get this [deal] done, and we have to be focused on this right now. The Ryder Cup can take a – the players and everyone involved understands that this is an issue we need to focus on.”

With Phil Mickelson now widely considered to be out of the running for future captaincies, Woods’ name has risen to the top of many prognosticators’ lists to lead the home side at Bethpage Black in 2025. Past captain Davis Love III went as far as to say recently that the job is Woods’ “if he wants.”

With the initial inquiry shut down, Woods was then pressed on his thoughts about this year’s Ryder Cup controversy that surrounded Patrick Cantlay and Cantlay’s hat (or lack of) and included Woods’ former caddie, Joe LaCava, whose lingering celebration on the final green that Saturday evening incensed Rory McIlroy. McIlroy recently said that Woods called and texted him multiple times the night of the incident before McIlroy eventually responded, "It will be fine... Long day... just want to go to bed."

Specifically, Woods was asked if he believes Ryder Cuppers should be paid, but Woods didn't bite on that, either.

“Well, what transpired there, it was media, it was just noise,” Woods said. “Then obviously the fact that everyone now carries a mobile device and that was able to spread. You’re not on home soil, so any time someone – they're going to try to get in your head, and that's what they tried to do. I totally get it. Emotions. We all want to win. You have a home side and opposing side, you're going to get heat, and that's what happened.”