Tom Watson has been Team USA’s Ryder Cup captain on two occasions but his most memorable stint was the miserable 2014 loss at Gleneagles.
Watson was in charge as the US went down to a miserable 16.5 to 11.5 defeat.
However, it wasn’t the action on the golf course that caught the attention. Instead, it was the comments of Phil Mickelson, who openly criticized the captaincy and direction of the team in what was an explosive post-tournament press conference.
Now, looking back at those scenes, both Mickelson and Watson had a lot to say on proceedings.
What Phil Mickelson said about Tom Watson’s Ryder Cup captaincy
In one of the most explosive press conferences in recent history across any sport, Mickelson went hard with his comments on the team’s failure.
Remarkably, Mickelson did it in front of his whole team, including his captain as he effectively laid into Watson and his methods.
“We had a great formula in ’08. I don’t know why we strayed,” Mickelson commented (Guardian) in 2014.
“I don’t know why we don’t go back. What Zinger did was great. There were two things that allow us to play our best I think that Paul Azinger did, and one was 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 [practice session] pod, when they would play, and they had a great leader for each pod.
“In my case, we had Ray Floyd, and we hung out together and we were all invested in each other’s play. We were invested in picking Hunter Mahan that week; Anthony Kim and myself and Justin Leonard were in a pod, and we were involved on having Hunter be our guy to fill our pod. So we were invested in the process.
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“The other thing that Paul did really well was he had a great game plan for us, you know, how we were going to go about doing this. How we were going to go about playing together; golf ball, format, what we were going to do, if so-and-so is playing well, if so-and-so is not playing well, we had a real game plan. Those two things helped us bring out our best golf.
“We all do the best that we can and we’re all trying our hardest and I’m just looking back at what gave us the most success. Because we use that same process in the Presidents Cup and we do really well.
“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.”
Tom Watson’s reaction to Phil Mickelson’s criticism
Speaking in response to the comments from Mickelson, Watson held his ground as he explained what his thought process was.
In the same article for the Guardian, Watson revealed how Mickelson had badgered him about playing more often, something he refused.
“We can get it done, captain. We want the chance.’ Watson said of Mickelson’s request.
I said: ‘Well, I think the way this golf course sets up, the four teams I put out there gives us the best chance.’
“He lobbied again. He texted me, he said: ‘Give us a chance.’ I had to tell him no. I felt that we had the four best teams possible in the afternoon for alternate shot.”
When asked specifically about Mickelson’s criticism of him, Watson tried to remain cool.
“He has a difference of opinion. That’s OK. My management philosophy is different than his. It takes 12 players to win. It’s not pods. It’s 12 players. I did talk to the players, but my vice-captains were very instrumental in making decisions as to whom to pair with,” Watson added.
“I had a different philosophy than Paul. I decided not to go that way. But I did have most of them play in the practice rounds together who played most of the time in the matches. I think that was the proper thing to do. Yes, I did mix-and-match a little bit from there, but again, you have to go with the evolution of the playing of the match and see who is playing the best and who to play with whom, and that’s what I did.”
With Watson having won as captain in 1993, he was more than entitled to his stance in 2014.
As for Mickelson, we are unlikely to see him as captain anytime soon given his move to LIV and comments on the USGA and PGA Tour since that move.
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