Leading USA challenge proves far from elementary for Watson

As Paul McGinley was yesterday mobbed by a group of fans dressed in Europe’s colours of blue and yellow, a crowd of songsters who went by the name “Guardians of the Cup,” the Irishman’s own status as a captain of the ages and a proper guardian was apparent.

Every one of his players, from Rory McIlroy to rookie Victor Dubuisson, sang his praises.

In contrast, Tom Watson, one of those legendary figures to hang around beyond their own playing days, was on unfamiliar ground. Revered as a player, his captaincy – a second stint, some 21 years after his first – was subjected to finger-pointing and criticism.

He was seen as detached from his players, unable to either fire them up or to communicate properly with them. His decision-making on the wild cards had been questioned before he ever got to Gleneagles, but it became an even greater issue in the heat of competition. Benching Keegan Bradley was one thing, to sit down Phil Mickelson another thing entirely.

There was a certain irony to the fun and games on the first tee as one singles after another teed off, where the crowd encouraged different personalities – players, captains, etc – to perform a wee dance upon their arrival. At one point, as Henrik Stenson took his place on the tee box, the fans broke into a rendition of an old Abba song.

If anything, recalling the Swedish supergroup also served to underline the generation gap between Watson and his players.

Wild card

Back in 1977 when he was the last player before McIlroy to win two Majors and the

Ryder Cup

in the same year, Abba were dominating the charts. Watson’s style of captaincy left you wondering if he truly knew the strains and demands of modern day captaincy.

Watson's choice of Webb Simpson as a wild card on the basis of a strong alliance with Bubba Watson proved ill-conceived, especially when a player like Chris Kirk was in the form of his life. In fairness, when selecting his picks, he couldn't have envisaged how Billy Horschel would transform his game.

But it was the difference in dynamics between McGinley’s captaincy and Watson’s that became most obvious as the week progressed. Communication to players seemed poor. He seemed out of touch with players and unwilling to listen. But it was his decision to leave Phil Mickelson – a veteran of 10 Ryder Cups – entirely out of play on Saturday that sparked discomfort within the team and that duly came to a head when all the dust had settled.

Mickelson was particularly critical of the lack of player involvement in the process. He pointed out that Paul Azinger had worked a different system in Valhalla in 2008, the last time that the USA managed to break the European stranglehold. Interestingly, whilst Mickelson was outlining his complaints at the top table of the interview room, not a single player came to Watson's defence. It was a telling response.

In highlighting the merits of Azinger’s captaincy, Mickelson said: “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 and when they would play. He had a great leader for each pod . . . . 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.

“Those two things helped us bring out our best golf. . . 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,” said Mickelson.

In his own defence, Watson replied: “ I had a different philosophy as far as being a captain of this team. You know, 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 whom to pair with. I had a different philosophy than Paul. I decided not to go that way.”

His way ended in defeat, a common theme for USA teams in the Ryder Cup.