Woods earns Ryder Cup wildcard

The world No 1, needing a wild card for the first time after failing to win a tournament all season, was named by captain Corey Pavin today along with Stewart Cink, Zach Johnson and Rickie Fowler.

They join the eight who had already qualified on points - Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Steve Stricker, Hunter Mahan and cup newcomers Dustin Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Jeff Overton and Bubba Watson.

Woods, who missed the 2008 match in Louisville following knee surgery, returns for his sixth cap, but has only once been on a winning side - in Boston in 1999.

He will play in Wales after a year when a sex scandal cost him his marriage and several of his multi-million dollar sponsorship deals.

He finished fourth at The Masters in his first event back from four months out and repeated that at the US Open, but has not had a top-10 finish since.

When Woods came 78th out of 80 at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational a month ago he expressed doubts about whether he would be of any use to the side playing the way he was.

But since starting to work with Sean Foley at last month's US PGA - previous coach Hank Haney walked out on Woods in May - there has been a marked improvement.

All that counted against Woods in the final analysis really was that America won by five points without him two years ago and lost the previous three matches with him.

But in his last appearance for the United States - last October's Presidents Cup - he achieved a maximum five points.

In 25 Ryder Cup games - no captain has dared to leave him out of a single session yet - he was won 10, halved two and lost 13.

Stricker is expected to become his 12th partner. They had four wins out of four together in the Presidents Cup and were only once taken to the final green.

The last time he played the Ryder Cup was at The K Club in Ireland, where his opening drive was hooked into a lake.

He was with Furyk then and they won two and lost two, while in 2004 Woods was famously put with Mickelson and suffered two first-day defeats.