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Obsessed Woods in Ryder Cup zone

Davis Love III is confident Tiger Woods' Ryder Cup standard will improve once again at Medinah © PA Photos

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The Ryder Cup gets underway at Medinah Country Club on September 28. ESPN will have extensive coverage of the event - including interactive text commentary, reports and reaction - for all three days.

Davis Love III has warned his European counterparts that Tiger Woods is obsessed with making sure the US team wins back the Ryder Cup trophy at Medinah this week.

Woods enters the competition as the leading American after battling back to No. 2 in the world, sitting behind Rory McIlroy in the world list. The iconic American has never missed a Ryder Cup session since making his debut in 1997, and he will be expected to inspire his team-mates over the three-day competition, which begins on Friday.

Woods' current Ryder Cup record reads 13 wins, 14 losses and two ties, although he has only ever lost once in the singles. And Love admits his phone has been ringing constantly as Woods attempts to leave no stone unturned in pursuit of victory.

"It means so much to him. I can tell you he's asked me 50 questions in the last two years - and 48 of them have been about the Ryder Cup," Love said.

"It was like he had a checklist and wanted to be able to tick everything off. He would call and say, 'Davis, where are we with assistant captains?' Check.

"He is so focused on it. Winning this Ryder Cup is high on his list of things to get done. His individual Ryder Cup record has got better recently and that is because he realised he was trying too hard when he broke into the team. He couldn't do it all by himself, he had to be part of the team.

"His great friend Michael Jordan learned that and I think Tiger learned from him. You have to support everyone - someone gives you the ball you give it back and Tiger's learned to do that."

Love also played down the long-held belief that Woods and Phil Mickelson do not sing from the same hymn sheet on the US side. He pointed to a recent ping-pong match as evidence that the pair have no issues causing disharmony in the ranks.

"Tiger and Phil were chatting about strategy when we all got together for the past champions' dinner at the PGA," Love said. "The perception is they don't get along. That's nonsense.

"They were partners in ping-pong in Wales two years ago. You would never stand on the same side in ping-pong if you don't get along."

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