Tiger Woods rarely goes to dinner with anyone he doesn't consider a close friend.
That's why it was so peculiar when he pulled aside J.J. Henry and three other Ryder Cup rookies he didn't know particularly well — one of them, Brett Wetterich, he had never met before — and asked them to dinner during the Bridgestone Invitational.
"A lot of people don't realize how much of a pleasure and how much fun he is to be around off the golf course," Henry said.
The richest man in golf, Woods had not been on a commercial flight since globe-trotting at the end of 1998.
That changed when he adjusted his schedule for the Deutsche Bank Championship — an important event because the tournament benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation — to join his 11 teammates on a charter flight to Ireland for two days of practice at The K Club, a course Woods knows as well as any in Europe.
Is this the same guy who once referred to the Ryder Cup as an exhibition? Who once said he could "think of a million reasons" why he would rather win $1 million at a World Golf Championship than the ultimate team prize in golf? Who was asleep by midnight while the rest of the U.S. team partied into the morning hours after winning at Brookline?
"If I ever hear somebody question Tiger Woods' desire to be a part of this team again, I'm going to go crazy," U.S. captain Tom Lehman said. "Tiger Woods cannot wait to play in this Ryder Cup. He is looking forward to this Ryder Cup every bit as much as looking forward to playing in the PGA Championship, the British Open, the Masters and the U.S. Open.
"I'm going to tell you one thing that Tiger told me. He said, 'We've got some young guys on the team. Don't worry about the young guys. I'll take care of them.' That tells you about the leadership of our team."
The Ryder Cup never has come easily for Woods.
He learned about the enormous expectations as a 21-year-old rookie at Valderrama in 1997, going 1-3-1 and catching most of the blame when Europe won. He has been harping about the black-tie gala dinner and other social functions that make it tough for him to be rested and ready. Mostly, however, Woods has been reticent to take charge of a U.S. team that looks to him as its best player.
But after a decade on the PGA Tour and playing on four Ryder Cup teams, Woods appears ready to take charge.
"I've only played on one team where I haven't been the youngest player," Woods said. "People were asking me to be the leader of the team, but I was the youngest — sometimes by 15 to 20 years. They were the veterans. They had been out here a lot longer than I have. That part was always awkward to me. I didn't want to step on anyone's toes."
Maybe the best thing that happened to this American team is when Davis Love III got left out, ending his streak of playing in every Ryder Cup or Presidents Cup since 1993.
Suddenly, the most experienced Americans were Woods, Phil Mickelson and Jim Furyk. Mickelson has been on every team since 1995, while Woods and Furyk started in 1997. The three of them are now the old guard, with most of the attention on Woods because of his sheer skill and accomplishments.
And he seems to be relishing the role.
"Davis filled that role for a long time. He played on more Ryder Cup teams than anyone else," Furyk said. "That being said, he's not on this team, so you have to find leadership from someone else. Tiger is not going to jump up and down and go 'rah-rah-rah.' He's going to lead in his own way."