Tiger Woods title win adds to Ryder Cup buzz

SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France – Already the most intense competition in golf, the Ryder Cup doesn’t need help to boost the excitement.

Tiger Woods managed to take it to another level.

He looked like the Woods of old by leading the final 36 holes of the Tour Championship, not letting anyone near him until it was too late, a vintage performance made all the more remarkable by four back surgeries and a future that looked bleak only a year ago.

Woods was a vice captain at the Presidents Cup a year ago this week and said he envisioned a scenario where he never returned to competition. One PGA Tour event into his return, Jim Furyk selected him as a vice captain for the Ryder Cup.

And then he picked him for the team. And then Woods won for the first time in more than five years.

“It’s obviously a nice buzz for our team,’’ Furyk said Monday, a few hours after the American charter plane landed in Paris.

The entire US team was on a charter that arrived in Paris at about 12:45 p.m. European captain Thomas Bjorn arrived late last week, as did a few of his players. Six of them were at East Lake for the Tour Championship. The first official day of practice is Tuesday.

Monday was as much a time to reflect on Woods as it was to rest up for a busy week at Le Golf National.

“I spent 25 years playing professional golf with Tiger Woods on the scene, and any time he does anything great, that’s a story. And that’s where we want to see him,’’ said Bjorn, the only player to be paired with Woods over 72 holes and beat him. That was in Dubai in 2001.

“He does so much for the game of golf,’’ Bjorn said. “Watching that last night, I thought it was brilliant. It was great for the greater aspect of the game.’’

The television ratings show as much.

NBC Sports Group said the overnight rating from the Tour Championship was 5.21, the highest-rated telecast in the 12-year history of the FedEx Cup playoffs, which cover 48 events featuring some of the strongest fields of the year.

That was the highest rating of the year this side of the majors, and the highest for the Tour Championship since 2000.