{"id":430,"date":"2014-10-06T14:31:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T14:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.golfballs.com\/?p=430"},"modified":"2024-02-19T15:19:40","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T21:19:40","slug":"is-tom-watson-to-blame-for-the-team-usas-loss-of-the-ryder-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/blog\/is-tom-watson-to-blame-for-the-team-usas-loss-of-the-ryder-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Tom Watson to Blame for the Team USA’s Loss of the Ryder Cup?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tom<\/a>

Tom Watson Ryder Cup, image: news.yahoo.com<\/p><\/div>\n

With the European’s fantastic performance at the 2014 Ryder Cup<\/a>, many fans, commentators, and even a few professional golfers are speculating whether or not Tom Watson was the right guy to lead Team USA at the biennial competition held this year in Scotland. Considering the poor media reception that Captain Watson has received since the abysmal loss at Gleneagles, the skipper himself may be wondering the same thing.<\/p>\n

The first toasts of victory hadn’t even commenced for the Europeans \u2013 well, except maybe in Rory McIlroy\u2019s camp<\/a> \u2013 and already there was second-guessing of the PGA of America\u2019s decision to appoint the 1993 Ryder Cup champion to the esteemed position once more coming from all sides.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most surprising attacks came from Watson\u2019s own team; particularly those unflattering comments made by Phil Mickelson shortly after the Europeans bested the Americans.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the decisions made leading up to the Cup, people will certainly be talking about those made by Watson during the tournament for some time to come.<\/p>\n

A Questionable Start<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Ryder Cup\u2019s match play format makes the event one of a kind.\u00a0 The first two days \u2013 Friday and Saturday \u2013 are fourball and foursome matches consisting of 8 players per team, so naturally there are players sitting out from each side during these sessions.\u00a0 Sunday\u2019s singles matches are one-on-one with twelve pairings, so no player is left out.<\/p>\n

Deciding who plays and who sits for Friday and Saturday\u2019s matches rests solely on the team captain so, when Callaway Golf<\/a>-sponsored Patrick Reed and Titleist<\/a>-sponsored Jordan Spieth were left out of the first day\u2019s foursomes after they dominated Stephen Gallacher and Ian Poulter Friday morning, some people were left scratching their heads.<\/p>\n

Whether the verdict to bench both Reed and Spieth for the second half of the day had an effect on their game for the remaining sessions is anyone\u2019s guess, but at least the young pros could say that they got a round in on Friday. Because that was something that neither Phil Mickelson nor Keegan Bradley would be able to say for Saturday\u2019s rounds.<\/p>\n

Watson raised even more eyebrows during the second day of the match play event, benching both Mickelson and Bradley \u2013 profitable points earners just two years ago at Medinah \u2013 for all matches held on Saturday.<\/p>\n

And if anyone was wondering how Mickelson felt about sitting out an entire day of play during this year\u2019s Ryder Cup before the tournament had ended, he certainly cleared the air at a press conference in which he criticized Watson for lacking to thoroughly communicate with fellow team members.<\/p>\n

A Wavering Game Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n

By the third day of the matches, the Europeans were already starting to celebrate. Team Europe had dominated Saturday\u2019s afternoon foursomes, putting a four-point gap between them and the American team 10-6, giving them a solid lead into the Sunday singles.<\/p>\n

Team Europe rode Saturday\u2019s momentum into Sunday victory, with Rory McIlRoy, Graeme McDowell, Martin Kaymer, Sergio Garcia and Jamie Donaldson all posting wins.\u00a0 Donaldson\u2019s 146-yard wedge shot to within a foot of the 15th<\/sup> hole marked the winning point for the Europeans on Sunday and made his new endorsers, TaylorMade<\/a>, pretty happy.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that Tom Watson\u2019s questionable decision-making and pairing led to some of Team USA\u2019s troubles during the 2014 Ryder Cup, but he cannot bare all of the blame.\u00a0 After all, in the end \u2013 especially during the singles matches \u2013 it all comes down to the players.<\/p>\n

Still, one can\u2019t help but wonder why Watson chose to waver from his original game plan \u2013 stating that he was going to \u201cplay the hot hands\u201d prior to the matches \u2013 yet choosing to bench rallying players like Reed and Spieth on Friday, or sitting out proven Ryder Cup performers Mickelson and Bradley on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Of course, it\u2019s always easy to speculate about how things should\u2019ve been after the game\u2019s been played.\u00a0 With any luck, the USA\u2019s 2016 Ryder Cup Team will learn from past mistakes and overcome them at the Hazeltine National Golf Course in Chaska, Minnesota.<\/p>\n

Something tells us that Tom Watson will be nowhere in sight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the European’s fantastic performance at the 2014 Ryder Cup, many fans, commentators, and even a few professional golfers are speculating whether or not Tom Watson was the right guy to lead Team USA...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,4],"tags":[57,79],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-news","tag-2014-ryder-cup","tag-tom-watson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":433,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions\/433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}