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Cape Town - Golf Channel analyst Brandel Chamblee reckons a resurgent Tiger Woods is set for a dual role at this year's Ryder Cup.
Last week, a fit and healthy Woods finished a more than credible solo 12th at the Honda Classic, with many pundits now agreeing his latest comeback is not just another false dawn.
Woods has already been selected as one of Jim Furyk's vice-captains for the biennial clash against Europe this coming September, but based on the strength of his recent performances on the PGA Tour, Chamblee reckons the 14-time major champion has a real chance of being selected as a player as well.
"My guess is he’ll get pegged as a player and his responsibilities as a vice captain will sort of slip to the side," Chamblee said.
"They’ll find another vice-captain. Although, he and Phil and Furyk, they’re the leaders whether they’re playing or not."
Chamblee puts the chances of Woods playing in Paris at around 80%, and admits the 42-year-old is starting to look like the 'badass' of old.
"Oh... 80% chance he’ll be playing on the team," he said.
"If the Ryder Cup were played next week, he’d get picked based upon what he did at the Honda, based upon who he is and what he did at – if he had yucked it around like he did at Farmers at Honda and finished (23rd like he did at Torrey), he wouldn’t have got picked.
"But he looked... he looked like a badass at Honda. He looked like 'Tiger Woods: Badass.' And with the exception of Sam Burns, nobody really played particularly well when they were playing with him.
"So I think he’d get picked. There’s only eight that are going to make the team. They’re going to have four picks. There is nobody that is going to say, ‘Hey, let’s not pick Tiger Woods.’
"And the only reason (I didn’t say 100 percent) is because there’s a 20 percent chance that something happens to him physically, I would say. Who knows? There were times where he looked a little fragile to me, bending over to tee a ball up. He didn’t look 22 years old when he was teeing his golf ball up. Now, he looked 22 years old when he was swinging at it. But he didn’t look 22 years old when he was teeing the ball up."
