Out with the old and in with the old system. That may not make much sense but it makes as much as many of the decisions made during Tom Watson’s forgettable captaincy for the Americans at the Ryder Cup last week.
The underdog Americans showed some fire at times but had it extinguished by the very man whose job it was to stoke it, Watson. It didn’t take long for Watson’s style and handling of the team to be criticized either. Phil Mickelson took jabs at Watson and pined for the days of Paul Azinger in the post-match press conference on Sunday.
While the Europeans were busy celebrating another Ryder Cup victory, their third straight and eighth in the last 10, Mickelson was calling for a fundamental change in the way the U.S. does business. His timing may have been off and it may have made for an awkward press conference, but in other ways he was spot on because the PGA of America has to be open to new ideas to turn things around or they will continue to have their heads handed to them by Europe.
If Mickelson has any say, it won’t be a new idea but a return to an old one, the one Azinger used at Valhalla in 2008 to lead an underdog team of Americans to a resounding Cup victory.
“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,” Mickelson said. “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. And 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.”
Stinging words considering Watson was sitting six seats away from him at the press conference but no one stepped up to defend Watson and a number of the decisions made during the competition made it appear that Watson was ill-prepared.
Sitting Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed on Friday afternoon, having Mickelson play both sessions on a cold, raw Friday, riding Jimmy Walker and Rickie Fowler one match too many, leading off the entire event with captain’s pick Webb Simpson and Bubba Watson, the list goes on regarding the questionable decisions Watson made throughout the weekend.
The 65-year-old Watson had a simple answer for the U.S. struggles both this year and recently saying “The obvious answer is that our team has to play better. I think they recognize that fact, that somehow, collectively, 12 players have to play better.” And while that is the case, pinning everything on the players is shortsighted.
Europe simply seems to have a better plan, from how it uses its players during the week to how it grooms and selects its captains. European captain Paul McGinley had been preparing for Gleneagles for years and was ready from the jump because he knew what to expect. McGinley had twice served as a vice captain at the Ryder Cup and also had a pair of successful captaincies at the Seve Cup under his belt.
Watson was the last captain to lead an American team to victory in Europe but a repeat performance was not to be. Mickelson is hoping for a repeat of Azinger’s formula from Valhalla in 2008 but if Watson’s dismissive comments are indicative of PGA of America thinking, that might not happen either.
“I had a different philosophy as far as being a captain of this team,” Watson said. “It takes 12 players to win. It’s not pods. It’s 12 players.”
Twelve players do make up the team but the U.S. also needs a captain to steer the team ship to victory, not sink it just as the voyage begins.
