SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — When asked to describe Tiger Woods, European fans used words like legendary, brilliant, revolutionary and game-changer. But no one said it better than a father and son at a hotel bar in Paris.

“He’s golfing royalty, and we hope he plays well but loses," said Josh, the son in the duo, who declined to give his last name to a reporter.

Even at the Ryder Cup, European golf fans can’t help but love Woods.

When he was announced at the opening ceremony, he received the loudest cheers and a rousing “Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!” chant. ESPN’s Bob Harig noted he had a gallery similar to Sunday at a major on Thursday while practicing on the putting green.

Outside of Rory McIlroy, Woods' standing ovation on the first tee Friday earned the loudest cheers and applause from the largely European crowd.

Woods and Patrick “Captain America” Reed lost to Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood 3 and 1 in the final match of Friday morning’s fourballs, dropping his fourball record to 5-9-0 (13-18-3 overall). After only two birdies coming off an electric Tour Championship victory, Woods was benched for the afternoon matches.

A few jeers at Reed aside, the crowds at Le Golf National were mostly positive. On numerous occasions fans were heard yelling “We love you Tiger!” as the 14-time major champion walked from shot to shot.

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Standing behind the first tee draped in European flags, a group of men from France and Belgium said they love to root against Woods, but there’s a certain level of respect that comes with the boos.

“Tiger has made a game that we all love very popular, so we salute him for everything he’s done for the game of golf," said French fan Alexandre Bough.

"We love him for that, but we certainly don’t love him as much as the Europeans.”