Phil Mickelson is taking a lot of heat on both sides of the Atlantic for what is being perceived as his anti-Tom Watson comments during the American press conference moments after losing the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.
The dynamics of a team event are such that you are not expected to criticise your fellow team members, and certainly not your captain. It’s one-for-all, and all-for-one.
To be fair to Mickelson, he started off talking about the good things Team USA did under captain Paul Azinger when they won the Ryder Cup last time in Valhalla in 2008 – in reply to a direct question – but then added: “Unfortunately, we have strayed from a winning formula in 2008 for the last three Ryder Cups, and we need to consider maybe getting back to that formula that helped us play our best.”
And then, to another direct question as to whether the things Azinger did happened last week, like consultation with team members before making decisions, Mickelson said: “No, nobody here was in any decision.”
Mickelson was obviously not a very happy man on Saturday, when Watson decided to sit him and Keegan Bradley out for both sessions. He even sent text messages mid-way through the morning session, pleading with the captain to let him play in the afternoon.
If that incident, and the way America was led by Watson, was genuinely a concern for Mickelson, he should have waited to return home and speak his mind to the PGA of America.
While not defending Mickelson’s action in any way, Watson’s captaincy does deserve to be criticised in the strongest possible terms.
Forget about the tactical blunders he made – not playing Mickelson and Bradley in Saturday’s foursomes was as bad as benching Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed on Friday afternoon after their morning heroics – his biggest mistake was not using his two veterans Jim Furyk and Mickelson in the best possible manner.
These two should have been his communication channel with the rest of the team a long time before the start of the tournament, because unlike McGinley, Watson is not a regular on the Tour.
And the way the European captain used senior players like Lee Westwood, Sergio Garcia and Graeme McDowell, should be part of the template for future American captains.
What irked me the most is that Watson got swayed by a single, long text by Webb Simpson on the day of announcing his wild cards, and handed him one. But a couple of texts from a five-time major champion, who has won four out of his five matches with Bradley, could not force a change of mind.
And if what Mickelson said was supposed to be a criticism of Watson, at least he had the guts to say it in the presence of the captain. That was far better than him saying it behind his back a few days later in an interview.
But the shortcomings of Watson’s captaincy is really not the point here. That Mickelson decided to talk at such an inopportune moment is. And therein lies one of the biggest reasons why Europe have dominated the Ryder Cup for the last 20 years.
Every time Europe come together for the biennial contest, the players tend to shed their superstar status and fall in a rank behind their commander. Somehow, Americans need to master that art.