What Tiger Woods did to his own teammates at the Ryder Cup which was the complete opposite of Seve Ballesteros

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Tiger Woods is arguably the greatest golfer to have ever graced the game, while Seve Ballesteros was arguably the most exciting player to watch.

Both Woods and Ballesteros were elite players during their prime years but they were very different, both on and off the golf course.

Woods won 82 PGA Tour events throughout his career, including 15 major championships. Had he not suffered with debilitating back and knee problems, he surely would have cruised past Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major wins.

Meanwhile, the Spaniard won five majors, nine PGA Tour events and 50 European Tour titles (currently known as the DP World Tour).

However, his true passion was the Ryder Cup.

Constantino Rocca beat Woods at the 1997 Ryder Cup after advice from Ballesteros, cruising to a 4&2 victory at Valderrama.

The Spaniard was great at helping out his younger and more inferior teammates, while the same can’t be said of Woods unfortunately.

How Tiger Woods and Seve Ballesteros were polar opposites at the Ryder Cup

Brandel Chamblee was speaking on Trey Wingo’s podcast about the difference between Woods and Ballesteros at the Ryder Cup.

And the renowned golf analyst highlighted how their approaches to the Ryder Cup yielded vastly differing results.

He said: “You couldn’t find a partner for Tiger, he was 9-19-2 (with teammates at the Ryder Cup). Seve, with his teammates was 18-8-3. Now you’re talking about in Tiger, arguably the greatest match-play player of all time.

“What Seve would do, Seve would take a rookie or one of the lowest ranked players on the team, put his arm around them and told them they were the best player, that they were unbelievable.

“Seve took Ignacio Garrido, he took Paul Way, he took Manuel Pinero. He took Jose Maria Olazabal when he was a rookie and 43rd in the world, he took David Guilford who was 58th in the world.

“Tiger intimidated even his own playing partners, no fault of his own. One thing I know, tormentors rarely make great mentors. Seve was a mentor, Tiger just intimidated everybody.“

Tiger Woods vs Seve Ballesteros: Ryder Cup records compared

Woods and Seve were both fierce competitors but they were very different people away from the golf course.

While Ballesteros used to put his arm around younger, less experienced players, Woods was very much a lone wolf.

As Chamblee noted, their respective Ryder Cup records are evidence of exactly that.

The Europeans have got it right more times than the United States in recent history.

The main reason for that is the fact that the US may have more superstars, but Team Europe are a more closely-knit group.

The difference between how Ballesteros and Woods approached the Ryder Cup is a perfect example of that.