Ryder Cup: Can Stricker bring the best out of conundrum Tiger?

Granted, he is not a player to quicken the heart rate or a Ryder Cup icon to be feared, but bear with me, for this wise Wisconsinite is set to play, what for him, could be the defining role of his career at Celtic Manor this week.

Stricker is not one of the great names of golf, despite his world ranking of No 4 suggesting something otherwise.

He has no majors to his name, indeed he has rarely even challenged for one of the game's big titles. Nor does he have a vast collection of golf's big prizes on his mantlepiece – as Lee Westwood, his fellow top-five ranked player missing the accolades that matter – can boast.

Stricker has won just nine times in a career spanning 20 years, but like Westwood, he has shown the character to clamber back from the brink of oblivion into the game's elite.

His ranking owes much to his performance in the FedEx Cup play-offs in recent years, the PGA Tour's over-inflated concept that rewards a few weeks' decent work with recession-busting sums. And even then, he's only won two of those play-off events.

Still, that's not enough to justify the above proclamation that his role in Wales will be pivotal. Where Stricker will prosper this week is as Tiger Woods's foil. For the 43-year-old's legacy to golf in years to come may be that he was the man to bring the best out of Woods in a Ryder Cup.

Now Woods is hardly in the all-conquering form that we have become accustomed to and the biennial match with Europe – when his record-breaking individual pursuits take a back seat to team gains – has never been his most comfortable environment.

He comes into this match having missed the United States' 2008 victory and on the back of the most sobering year of his life, both professionally and personally. All eyes will be on his every move as the man with the greatest individual record of his generation seeks to improve his very modest Ryder Cup stats.

He has provided US captains of old with their greatest conundrum – who to pair with Woods in the foursomes or fourballs.

He has played with all types; dependable pros like Jim Furyk and Davis Love, up-and-coming talents like Chris Riley – and failed to spark with each one.

Famously, he was paired with Phil Mickelson in the first group on the first morning of the 2004 match at Oakland Hills, and his stare into the back of the world No 2s head when Mickelson pushed a tee shot into the fence on the decisive 18th said it all.

Much like his individual roll of honour, Stricker does not possess a Ryder Cup record to strike fear into opponents. He won just one match on his debut at Valhalla.

But at the President's Cup last year, when the US defeated a Rest of the World team, Stricker and Woods dovetailed perfectly to forge a formidable partnership.

The pair won all four of their fourballs and foursomes matches, giving Woods enough confidence to put the seal on a perfect weekend with victory in the singles.

Stricker's unerring putting stroke and laser accuracy from tee to green provide Woods with a safety net.

If he is offline, Stricker won't be. If Stricker is in trouble, Woods's short game will come to the rescue. If Corey Pavin has done his homework and the United States are successful this week, it will owe much to Stricker and his partnership with Woods.