It seems fairly obvious Phil Mickelson will be the fall guy if, make that when, the U.S. loses the Ryder Cup.
Davis Love III also looked dreadful in losing two matches Friday, but he is in the lineup Saturday morning. Mickelson isn’t.
U.S. captain Hal Sutton decided to sit Mickelson, the world’s No. 4-ranked player, after he failed to hold up his end in his pairing with Tiger Woods. Apparently, Mickelson’s errant tee shot on 18 during the afternoon, leading to a second defeat for the “Dream Team,” was more than Sutton could take.
When asked whether Mickelson switching clubs just before the matches, and his decision not to practice with the team Wednesday affected his play, Sutton all but threw him under the bus.
“We all want answers to that,” Sutton said. “But the most important person who’s going to have to wonder about that is Phil Mickelson. It’s not going to cause us any grief in the morning because he’s going to be out there cheering instead of playing.”
Ouch. Sutton later softened his remarks, but the damage had been done. Really, Mickelson, who wasn’t available for comment, only has himself to blame.
So give a bogey to Mickelson. Unless something dramatic happens, the Ryder Cup will be a black mark during the greatest season of his career.
Bogey: Callaway Golf. Watching Mickelson spray his new driver and fairway woods hardly will inspire consumers to rush to get those Callaway clubs.
Birdie: Colin Montgomerie: All hail Monty, the king of the Ryder Cup.
Birdie: Luke Donald. The former Northwestern star acquitted himself well in playing two matches. In the morning he hit a critical 214-yard, 2-iron to set up a par on 18, enabling him and Paul McGinley to halve their match with Chris Riley and Stewart Cink.
Then in the afternoon, he made several crucial putts to key him and Sergio Garcia to a 2-and-1 victory over Kenny Perry and Cink.
“I was definitely nervous this morning,” Donald said. “But after the first hole, I really did settle down and felt very comfortable out there. Playing as well as I have, it’s obviously nice to know that I can hit the shots when I need to.”
Bogey: The crowd. Instead of being rowdy like the Brookline galleries in 1999, the fans needed to be checked for a pulse Friday. But there was a reason.
“One of the guys said, `You know the crowd was kind of dead out there today,'” Sutton said. “I said, `Well, they would have been cheering [U.S.] pars and bogeys if they would have been cheering.”
