For if one thing has become clear as these matches have progressed, it's that far from being the saviour of the American team, far from being the one to reverse the statistics that scream that the sons of Uncle Sam have lost four of the last five Ryder Cups, Tiger Woods is nearing the point at which he's doing their cause more harm than good.

Any other player on any other team would have been benched for the afternoon foursomes yesterday. Poor Brett Wetterich had a teeth-grinding nightmare on Friday morning but he did at least manage to put a birdie on the board and win his team a hole. Still, after the 3&2 beating he and David Toms went on to take from Sergio Garcia and Jose Maria Olazabal, he slunk away into the ether, not to be seen again until the singles. Yesterday morning, Tom Lehman told Scott Verplank he'd be playing in the foursomes as well as the fourballs but after Zach Johnson carried him through their morning match against Padraig Harrington and Henrik Stenson, Verplank was handed an afternoon on the range.

Neither decision was the wrong one from Lehman and both Wetterich and Verplank admitted that their form wasn't where it might be. Only two players out of the 16 who played in the morning failed to stitch a birdie into the card. Verplank was one. Woods was the other. And Verplank at least managed to win his team a hole.

But Woods registered neither alongside Furyk as they went down 3&2 to Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood yesterday morning but when the pairings were announced just after midday, his name was there with Furyk's and drawn against those of Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington. It would of course have been a massive call to sit him down. Woods's form had fallen so far through the floor, though, that it looked just as big a call to let him play.

Thing is, Friday hadn't been as bad a washout for him as had been made out in its aftermath. True, he didn't set Kildare on fire but by the standards of mortals it had been a solid enough day. He and Furyk had won in the morning and had taken their foursomes against the awesome Garcia and Luke Donald partnership down the 18th. Indeed, before yesterday you could have just about made a case for him.

Just about, mind. The evidence against was considerable but with the right words and presented in the right way, there was enough reasonable doubt for him to have beaten the rap. His run of three birdies in five holes during the Friday morning fourballs against Colin Montgomerie and Harrington had taken the Americans from all square to three up on the 13th tee and from there they were never caught. In light of that fact, your honour, surely the court could find within itself some quality of mercy?

Maybe. But his performance in the hours just after dawn's early light yesterday leaves the court no option. No part of his game functioned smoothly. His driving was as wayward as on his worst days . . .

behind a tree on the 4th; in the rough leading to a second shot into the water off the back of the 7th; way into the crowd on the left of the 9th fairway; into the water on the right of the 15th. He got into that horrible funk he sometimes does with his putting where one careless miss begets another begets another. Three feet on the 8th, four feet on the 9th. Some longer ones just shaved the edge and didn't drop, leading to the anguished face, the despairing closed eyes.

In his defence, some of his iron play was up to what he'd regard as scratch but even when he managed a decent attempt he either made a mess of the putt or was trumped by his opponents.

When, on the 16th, he finally got himself into a hole-winning position with a beauPAtiful knifing approach to 10 feet, Clarke chipped in from off the green to close out the match.

Afterwards, Clarke was sympathetic to his friend's plight. "I do feel for Tiger because he is obviously such a good friend to me, " he said. "He had an off day. His timing was off, his putting to go along with that.

Sometimes with the best player in the world, you want him to play well, you want him to play at his best and you want to try and beat people when they are at their best. But today, he just, you know, had a tough day. We all have them."

Given the reprieve of being picked for the foursomes, Woods came out for the afternoon and went about making amends. On the third green against Harrington and McGinley, he actually holed a putt of some substance . . . a raking 15-footer that earned him and Furyk a birdie. Harrington followed him in for the half, though, and he had to wait until the next hole to make his first significant contribution to the day's play, his towering approach stopping dead 10 feet from the hole. Furyk holed out to put them 1-up and begin an American fightback.

Since his first Ryder Cup in Valderrama, Woods has played four singles matches, winning two, losing one and halving one.

However patchy his overall record has been, he's never underperformed quite so drastically in the team matches as he has here. Whether he can rescue his week today must be up for serious question.