Phil Mickelson rips captain U.S. Tom Watson after another Ryder Cup debacle

GLENEAGLES, Scotland -- U.S. captain Tom Watson suffered a pair of defeats yesterday in the Ryder Cup -- first from the Europeans, and then from Phil Mickelson.

In a subtle dig at Watson's leadership style, Mickelson said the Americans have strayed from the formula that Paul Azinger brought to the 2008 team at Valhalla, the only time since 1999 the Americans have won the Ryder Cup.

"We all do the best that we can and we're all trying our hardest," Mickelson said. "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."

The Americans were not at their best at Gleneagles in a 161/2-111/2 blowout loss to Europe, which now has won eight of the last 10 meetings. The best action was in the media room, not on the course.

Mickelson called out Watson's leadership, which was more single-minded than Azinger in 2008, or even Davis Love III two years ago at Medinah. Mickelson didn't see it as a "brutal destruction of leadership," as one reporter suggested.

"You asked me what I thought we should do going forward to bring our best golf out, and I go back to when we played our best golf," Mickelson said.

Azinger introduced a "pod" system at Valhalla, and later wrote a book on his philosophy. He broke the qualifiers into three groups, and let them choose who would be the captain's pick for each pod. They ate together, stayed in the same groups, played together as teams and were next to each other in the lineups.

Asked if that happened this week, Mickelson said, "Uh, no. No, nobody here was in [on] any decision. So no."

Rarely has a losing news conference been so explosive, if not awkward.

"I had a different philosophy as far as being a captain of this team," Watson replied. "It takes 12 players to win. It's not pods. It's 12 players. Yes, I did talk to the players, but my vice captains were very instrumental in making decisions as to [the pairings]. I had a different philosophy than Paul. I decided not to go that way.

"The bottom line," he said, "is they kicked our butts."

When asked if he had the answers, Mickelson cut off the question. "I've been on eight losing teams," he said. "I'm only reflecting on the one time in the last 15 years that we've won and what allowed us to do that."