Phil Mickelson Criticises Tom Watson After Ryder Cup Defeat

Phil Mickelson has openly criticised U.S. Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson just hours after his side was beaten by their European rivals.

After USA succumbed to their eighth Ryder Cup defeat in the last ten competitions, Mickelson decided to heap praise on Paul Azinger, the last captain to lead USA to victory. This was seen as a direct insult to Watson, who was seated very close to Mickelson in the press conference when he made the comments.

“There were two things that allowed us to play our best that Paul Azinger did. First, he got everybody invested in the process. He got everybody invested in who they were going to play with, who the picks were going to be, who was going to be in their ‘pod’, when they would play, and they had a great leader for each pod. We hung out together,” Mickelson stated.

“The other thing that Paul did really well was he had a great game-plan for us – how we were going to go about doing this, how we were going to go about playing together, if so-and-so is playing well, if so-and-so is not playing well,” he continued. “Those two things helped us bring out our best golf. We use that same process in the Presidents Cup [US versus the rest of the world] and we do really well. Unfortunately we have strayed from a winning formula for the last three Ryder Cups and we need to consider maybe getting back to that formula that helped us play our best.”

Watson responded to these remarks with a calm and collected remark. He declared, “He has a difference of opinion. That’s OK. My management philosophy is different than his.”

Mickelson also tried to downplay the notion that he had insulted Watson with his comments, stating when asked if he thought he’d been disloyal to Watson, “I’m sorry you’re taking it that way. I’m just talking about what Paul Azinger did to help us play our best.”

However, Nick Faldo, who captained the European side that lost to Azinger in 2008, was heavily critical of Mickelson.

“That should have been a private conversation,” he noted. “Phil certainly doesn’t respect Tom Watson.”

He was joined in criticizing Mickelson by Colin Montgomerie, as the Scot stated, “Should we go into this one hour after we’ve been defeated? The answer is a flat no. You support your captain under all circumstances. In public, you respect and honor your captain.”

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