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 That victory under Paul Azinger was one of only two in the last
10 editions and those involved were particularly happy with his
"pod" system, whereby players were split into groups of three or
four who practiced and played together.
Subsequent captains Corey Pavin, Davis Love and Watson dispensed
with it, leaving Mickelson, who has now lost eight of his 10 Ryder
Cups, a frustrated figure.
"Paul Azinger 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, who --
when they would play, and they had a great leader for each pod,"
Mickelson said after finishing his weekend with a singles victory
over Stephen Gallacher.
"The other thing that Paul did really well was he had a great game
plan for us, 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.
"We use that same process in the President's Cup and we do really
well. Unfortunately, we have strayed from that for the last three
Ryder Cups and we need to consider maybe getting back to that
formula that helped us play our best."
It was highly unusual to hear a Ryder Cup player openly criticize
his captain's approach, especially so soon after the match, and
though Mickelson attempted to say it was not an attack on Watson, he
was not about to row back.
Asked to elaborate about the involvement of players with the
captain, Mickelson added: "No. Nobody here was in any decision."
Watson, who was the last man to lead the U.S. to an away Ryder Cup
victory in 1993, said he had a "different philosophy."
"It takes 12 players to win. It's not pods," the 65-year-old said,
with barely-disguised disdain for such a modern fad.
"I did talk to the players, but my vice-captains were very
instrumental in making decisions as to whom to pair with.
"Yes, I did mix-and-match a little bit from there, but 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."
TEETH GRITTED
Watson controversially sat Mickelson and partner Keegan Bradley out
of both Saturday matches after winning their fourball but losing
their foursomes on Friday and Watson, teeth gritted and sitting six
people along from Mickelson as all 12 players were lined up on
stage, was in no mood to apologize.
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"I watched them play and they struggled some... they had a hard time
hitting the fairways," he said, this time with Mickelson adopting
the five-mile stare.
"It got a little bit better as the match went on, but that concerns
me so I put some players in there I thought could put the ball in
the fairway maybe a little bit better."
Jim Furyk, another veteran who has been on the losing side far too
often for comfort, also struggled to put his finger on why the
formerly dominant Americans are now losing so regularly.
"Everyone asks me what is the winning formula but if I could put my
finger on it, I would have changed this shit a long time ago," he
said.
"But we haven't and we are going to keep searching."
Furyk also said he had no explanation for Europe's dominant 7-1
success in the foursomes this week, especially as the U.S. has done
well in that format in recent Ryder Cups and in the President's Cup.
"I really thought we had a team here that set up well for
foursomes," he said. "I thought there was a lot of guys you could
plug in and it was a difficult decision for the captains.
"We won fourballs 5-3 and got decimated 7-1 in the foursomes. All in
all, it was too much to come back from but I have no answer to why
we lost 7-1."
The Americans can, however, draw hope for the future from the
brilliant form shown at Gleneagles by their rookies -- Jordan Spieth
(2 1/2 points), Patrick Reed (3 1/2) and Jimmy Walker (2 1/2) who
headed the U.S. points standings.
"They scored eight-and-a-half points for our team, and that bodes
well for the future of the American Ryder Cup team," Watson said.
(Editing by Ed Osmond)
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