Tiger Woods' hilariously grumpy Ryder Cup interview shows he hasn't changed a bit

The narrative this week at the Ryder Cup was all about the new Tiger Woods, and for good reason. Tiger, taking a step back from the singluar focus that's defined his golf career, served as a vice captain to David Love III and was said to have been more open with fellow players than he's been in his two-decade career, fully embracing his role as a mentor. He was in charge of the pod that included Ryder Cup hero Patrick Reed, who went 3-1-1 on the week and whose opening-match brilliance with Jordan Spieth on Friday and opening-match enthusiasm on Sunday set the tone for both sessions, each of which the Americans would go on to dominate. "It was amazing,” Reed said of having Woods as a mentor, later adding, "he’ll answer any question, whether it’s about golf, on the golf course, off the golf course, anything."

Well, at least he'll answer questions for someone.

After the United States' regained the Ryder Cup for the first time in eight years, Woods showed that while his personal persona may have changed, he's still gonna Tiger it up in public. During the celebration of the U.S. victory, Tiger stood for an interview with NBC's Steve Sands that was was more awkward than Christmas dinner at Danny Willett's house is going to be.

It totaled 49 seconds and, in a feat of pure Belichickian brilliance, Tiger managed to use fewer words to answer the questions (85) than were used to ask them (99).

This is the entire transcript of his interview, who asked three interesting questions that were swatted away like Tiger was Dikembe Mutombo in the paint and Sands was a driving Muggy Bogues.

Steve Sands: Dan, thank you, with Tiger Woods. What a different experience this must have been for you, not playing but being one of the assistant captains. What did you learn this week, Tiger?

Tiger Woods: No, we're a team. Whether I was playing or not, I was part of a team and our team won.

SS: What's the difference playing for pride versus playing for money, which is what you guys do each and every other week?

TW: I'm still playing for pride even whether I'm playing for money or not. I take pride in the work I do out there and this is no exception, whether there's cash involved or not you're always playing for pride.

SS: How much were you involved with everything, it seemed like you were very into it from the outside looking in and the guys kept recognizing what you were doing. What were you contributions here for the team this week?

TW: I was just trying to do my role. And my role is to help the team however possible. And I hope I've done that.

SS: Appreciate the time as always Tiger, thanks. 

TW: Appreciate it.

At first I wondered whether I was the only one to notice the absurd terseness of the interview and how Tiger deflected questions like he was Donald Trump at a presidential debate but a quick scan of Twitter showed I wasn't alone. The words cold, short, typical, classless, horrible, sniping, surly, awkward and bizarre were all used and those were literally in the first 10 tweets I saw (and there were far more unprintable ones).

In Tiger's defense, maybe he was trying to stay out of the spotlight so as not to steal attention from the golfers who actually won the Cup, though that theory flies in the face of Tiger's desire to be in the team picture earlier in the week and could have been remedied by simply not agreeing to the interview. Whatever.

I, for one, am glad the real Tiger is back. Maybe a surly Tiger off the course is what we need for an effective Tiger on it.