Mickelson vs Watson: Was Phil Right to Be Critical of Watson at the Press Conference?

[Fourputt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big C

No. Phil was childish and immature. His comments reek of someone whose ego was bruised by being asked to sit out all day Saturday, so he's going to get back at his captain with a few direct shots at the press conference.

Amazingly, Patrick Reed showed twice the maturity and composure of "Elder statesman" Phil. Even though Reed had just as much reason to be steamed about sitting out the Friday afternoon sessions, he composed himself and answered questions like a professional - which is to say, he took the high road and did not throw Watson under the bus.

I would guess that Phil is regretting his statements right now and will be making an apology to Watson (whether public or private remains to be seen) in very short order.

I haven't seen the round of interviews yet.  Just a couple of post round interviews.  Was out this weekend and have to watch the recordings after the fact....sigh

On topic - I don't know if Phil had already aired his comments with Tom Watson and the other teammates already.  (I'd bet he did and then some)  But that's how you do it - discuss it privately, and only if it doesn't get results/acknowledgment then openly.  Not openly first.  So I can't comment if he should have done it at all.  Personally, I'm happier with the 'win as a team, lose as a team' even if that's rote, it's courteous.

I'm also more of a fan with a winning team member talking about the team winning, and when it's a losing team, each member talks about how they personally could have done better.  I don't know what kind of 'mea culpa' Tom Watson put out there prior to Phil's comments either - but each member should be afforded a chance to own up before anyone else even thinks of doing it for them.

But I do think that doing it right now and as an answer to a direct question - where everybody involved is present so they can comment/reply/rebutt - is the least objectionable way to do what he did.  Better than after the fact or behind anyone's back.

It'll be more interesting to see how the conversation progresses going forward.

Your comment on Reed - I saw Reed's interview after his match and was impressed - he talked about teamwork, praised his teammates, gave a VERY respectful nod to his opponent and just plain acted like a teammate and not just about PR - apparently he is able to learn from his past gaffs.  of course winning makes him more legit too.  But he did a good job with the press finally.  Good to see.

You don't effect change by talking behind the scenes.  Sometimes dirty laundry needs to be aired out in a public forum in order to get it noticed.  I don't think that anyone can argue against something needing to change on the US side.  Even if Europe does have a better cast currently, the results shouldn't be that lopsided.  Sometimes it does come down to leadership, and I repeat my earlier comment that Tom Watson did not lead.  He bossed.  And apparently he didn't even boss very well.

When you are working with a group as normally independent as professional golfers, you can't get the best from them by ordering them around dictatorially.  The fact that Watson didn't even travel with the rest of the group seems to me to be a significant symptom of the problem.   He did nothing to inspire teamwork from his players, and in that he was dead wrong.

[iacas]

Watson did not swing one club during this rout, so most of this poor showing belongs on the shoulders of the players.

Agree with most, but not all. Also, picking Simpson was a terrible decision, and Watson is responsible for 25% of the team's makeup and ALL of the team's pairings.

Voicing this publicly might have been a good idea if they were getting ready to play again in the very near future. With the next match 2 years away, with presumable different players, and a different coach, it has little meaning for the next group.

It's being widely discussed. I think it will have a significant impact on the next matches.

Tommy Watson is good man, and knows golf. This loss, and Mickleson's words won't bother him that much. If anything he will take the heat, so as not let this loss fall on the players' shoulders, even though that's where most of it belongs.

Did you miss the parts of the interviews where he blamed, in no particular order, his players, their fitness, and his assistant captains?

He did not take "the heat" himself. He sloughed it off on others. They deserved some - even most - of it. But not the level to which he dished it out.

Most likely by next week they will be friends again, and sharing some beverages. Probably doing that now. It's the media that will keep stoking the fire.

I'd rate that as unlikely. Not sure why you'd think that.

What Phil did is unexcusable. If you have a problem with your 'boss' (or anybody else), you take it up with him. If that doesn't help you go to the person above that (PGA or whatever).

Perhaps he'd done that.

And he's been on 8 losing teams, and only 2 winning teams. Perhaps he felt the times called for drastic measures.

Plus, Tom wasn't his "boss."

Imagine it would be the other way around, and the captain publically trows one of a underperfomrning player under the bus. Would that also be okay? I guess not...

He did that… Look up his comments about players being "fit" enough and so on.

Yep but IMO without positive impact to the health and attitude of the US team.

Pure speculation, is it not? How do you know? The entire U.S. team except Watson might agree with Phil. And again, Phil went 2-1.

Most felt RM/SG lost the first match and PM/KB stole it.

A win is a win, man. C'mon. Many others didn't manage to win points despite having 3-up leads and such.

[skydog]

Did you miss the parts of the interviews where he blamed, in no particular order, his players, their fitness, and his assistant captains?

He did not take "the heat" himself. He sloughed it off on others. They deserved some - even most - of it. But not the level to which he dished it out.

Yea I actually don't know if I can remeber any coach/captain in any sport taking less responsibility for a loss and heaping more of it onto his team. He was defensive and ornery with the media the entire week and most of Steve Sands' on course questions were answered with some variation of 'our guys have to start playing better.' Never once did I hear him take any responsibility.

[Silent]

Perhaps he'd done that. And he's been on 8 losing teams, and only 2 winning teams. Perhaps he felt the times called for drastic measures. Plus, Tom wasn't his "boss."

Maybe that's why I said 'or anybody else'. If he showed the same behaviour towards a teammate I would have the same opinion. [quote] He did that… Look up his comments about players being "fit" enough and so on.[/quote] And how do you feel about that? I didn't know this, but in my opinion his behaviour is in that case as bad as Phil's (maybe worse, from a captain you expect even more). Fighting those fights trough the media is a sign of frustration and weakness in my opinion.

[Chris223]

Does anyone know where I can watch the whole press conference?  All I can find are like 2-3 minutes clips of just Phils comments nothing else.  I don't even know if that was all Phil said.

[vangator]

When you're sitting there and see bone headed move after bone headed move and all the announcers were saying the same thing (very politely), you get sick of it.

[late347]

In singles matches, team usa should have sacrificed weaker player to the Moloch's maw. The golfing monster known as Rory McIlroy

sacrifice someone like webb simpson or keegan bradley vs Rory, team usa, almost unwinnable points in this match , but it's only 1 point surefire loss from 1 match out of 12.

play Fowler vs donaldson

or

play fowler vs poulter.

This was at least one mistake, if you could talk about such thing, as an optimal matchup for team usa. This might be little bit ungentlemanly but it's a team event. Somebody has to take a hit for the team, on team usa, it was always unavoidable. We all knew that Rory was the strongest player out there in the Ryder cup.

[late347]

Also I was surprised that the thread talked about TOM Watson being criticized

I thought that Phil was criticizing BUBBA ... This year's master's champion... not so stellar run sadly. I know though, that Kaymer was also world class opponent though...  It was always difficult matchup versus him.

Still I expected more from Bubba, and I expected to see him more out there on the field. I expected the captain the play him more.

[skydog]

Originally Posted by late347

Still I expected more from Bubba, and I expected to see him more out there on the field. I expected the captain the play him more.

Bubba is borderline nonfunctional on European soil...and for that matter most every course but a small handful that he feels comfortable on (i.e. Augusta). I don't think he should be on another RC team.

[isukgolf]

I agree with @skydog ... one could question, given his history why would you play Bubba

[Aflighter]

First of all phil wasn't pointing out Watson only,he was answering the question saying they need to go back to what they did in 08 that worked.Thats why I love phil because the man is honest and not afraid to tell you what he thinks.This is one of the reasons I have no doubt phil isn't a fake because if he was he would have gave a politically correct answer.Seems like nowadays everybody is afraid to say anything and would rather hide how they feel and what they do.

[sgt1372]

FWIW, I don't think that the OP has framed the question correctly because I don't think that Phil specifically criticized Tom.

What happened was that Phil was asked a specific question by a member of the press about how or what might help the US Team win the Ryder Cup again in the future.  Phil previously mentioned (before the press conference) that he thought that the pod system that Asinger adopted back in 2008, which was the last time the team won, was a better system. There were 2 other losing teams/captains in the interim other than Tom.  So, if Phil was criticizing anyone it was the "system" that the 2 prior captains and Tom chose to adopt -- NOT just Tom's.

As for his right to speak his mind, I think that he was entitled to do so.  I mentioned elsewhere that I'm sure that he answered in frustration and could have handled it better, but he didn't go out of his way to indict Tom specifically.  I also don't think it would have done any good for Phil to try to talk w/Tom in private because he had probably been ignored or dismissed by Tom before and trying to speak w/him again after the loss wouldn't have mattered because Tom won't be the captain of the next team and can't change anything.

Phil's comments were directed at the PGA and the future captain(s) and talk now is leaning towards asking Asinger to captain again.  That wouldn't have happened w/o Phil's comment.  So, I think it's all for the good.

[RandallT]

I answered no, but I agree with Phil to some degree and I don't really know a better way for him to get the conversation going. Tom Watson was a terrible captain from what I observed. I think Phil and Keegan were treated poorly by their captain, and time may reveal more about what exactly happened (and if it affected team morale). We were so flat emotionally on Sunday for some reason, and that reflects directly on the captain, in my mind. I'm more disappointed with Tom than Phil, but I wish Phil had answered more diplomatically somehow and then lowered the boom later after time to think it through. His criticism now comes too soon to be taken as seriously as it should. In some polls, people are circling the wagons around Tom, due to impropriety of the setting. Phil has a valid message, but for many , Phil is the bad guy.

[nick1998bunker]

I didn't like some of watsons decisions. But phil has to understand he is not one of the better players. Yes he was playing well but he could win well in the morning and get annihilated later, I didn't watch much, I feel like some weaker players could have rested, but I don't know any logistics cause I didn't watch but you get it. I do think though that Watson being phils superior, he needs to understand watson is expected to make the decisions and it's not up phil to have a say. Yes it's nice when a leader asked others opinions but it's not a democracy, because democracy has never worked.

[late347]

I was pleasantly surprised by patrick reed's and dubuisson's performances.

Reed missed some ridiculous putts... but he pulled it together on sunday definitely.

Dubuisson was almost MvP level player on europe team.

The guy won all his matches except last single game was halved. Reed also won all, except one halved.

I was definitely rooting for Dubuisson at the last hole... sadly he must have become distracted made couple bad shots on 18th, and simply lost the hole, which caused match halved.

Zach johnson's putt to win the  hole - the putt was long enough to miss for sure, but the putt must have been easier and straighter read, than what was apparent from the camera angle.

[jgreen85]

I'm fine w/ Phil's comments. I assume he shared his disagreement's with Watson's approach along the way. If he didn't, then this was poor timing. I always think one should let his/her superiors know in advance they will disagree. Either way, I'm tired of the US losing and I don't buy "the Euro's are just better" nonsense. As Chamblee pointed out numerous times, the avg world rank for the US players is greater than that of the Euros. Euros certainly played better.

Unfortunately, Phil's comments are having the reverse of the effect he wanted them to have at least based on comments from the Golf Channel. Everyone seems to be rallying around Watson.

[Michael]

What the media does or doesn't do is not the issue.  You're suggesting that a captain has a significant role on the outcome.  I disagree, especially when the score is 16.5 to 11.5.

Europe had a slightly stronger team, but not a 5 point stronger team.  Yes, something is wrong, but it is not the captain.  Just look at the recent history.  Watson should admit he failed; Mickelson should admit he and his team failed.  That is how the recovery begins (as opposed to pointing fingers).

[Aflighter]

I watched early on sunday morning before I had to leave for tournament and usa was leading 6 of 8 matches so they were coming back but they lost their leds granted most were only like 1 or 2 up but red was on the board but its not a 9 hole match.