But instead he said he had more fun “probably because we’re all good friends and you see more concessions and more sportsmanship – good sportsmanship”.

“That’s the way it’s supposed to be played and how the Ryder Cup used to be played. Now it’s starting to get back to that,” the world number one said at the HSBC Champions tournament in Shanghai, where he finished second behind England’s David Howell.

“The Presidents Cup is a lot more enjoyable because of how the sportsmanship is conducted. That’s the nature of why both tournaments were started and unfortunately the Ryder Cup got a little sidetracked.”

Woods was further questioned on whether he had himself witnessed bad sportsmanship since he made his Ryder Cup debut at Valderrama in 1997.

“Let’s not say sportsmanship. How about gamesmanship?” he replied. But when asked if there were any examples he cared to share he not surprisingly said: “Nope.”

At the Presidents Cup in September Woods’ team-mate Chris DiMarco referred to “the hatred of the Ryder Cup”.

Lee Westwood reacted to that by saying: “How a veteran of one Ryder Cup can say that, I don’t know about that. It’s beyond me.

“If you thought last time was bad in Deroit he should have been in Boston (in 1999). It doesn’t exist – there is no hatred in the Ryder Cup. It’s just very, very competitive.”

Last November England’s Paul Casey was fiercely criticised – and not just from the other side of the Atlantic – for saying in a newspaper interview that “we properly hate the Americans”.

Other Europeans quickly distanced themselves from that remark and Casey had a hard time dealing with the repercussions.

Woods will notface the same problems after what he said and when the subject was mentioned to him again today he did not back off and simply answered: “It’s the truth.”