September 28, 2014

Ryder Cup 2014: Tom Watson admits thrashing

Watson admits US were 'shellacked' (©GettyImages).

US Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson had admitted that his side were thrashed by Europe in Saturday afternoon's foursomes but remains positive about his side's chances.

USA head into Sunday's singles matches trailing 10-6 after only winning 0.5 of a point during the afternoon session for the second day in a row.

Watson echoed US President Barack Obama words during his party's defeat in the 2010 midterm election.

Shellacked

"In the infamous words of our President: we got shellacked this afternoon," he said.

But Watson found reasons to believe his team can turn things around at Gleneagles during the final day. Twice in the last seven Ryder Cups has a 10-6 deficit been overturned, by Europe two years ago and by the US in 1999.

Revenge

Watson believes that his players are capable of turning it around as they hope to get revenge for Europe's comback at Medinah two years ago.

"It's 10-6 and, as I recall, there's been a little bit of history with 10-6 comebacks - most recently the Europeans last year (2012) and of course in 1999 at Brookline.

"The players are already talking about that. They said that this is what we're going to have to do. Every player right here is going to have to play their guts out, play their hearts out."

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Bad decisions

A couple of Watson's decisions during the event have raised eyebrows, most notably the decision to leave out rookies Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth during Friday's foursomes after their convincing win in the morning.

He also left out five-time winner Phil Mickelson of both the fourballs and foursomes on Saturday. Mickelson is playing in a record 10th Ryder Cup and Watson revealed that he was desperate to play on Saturday.

"I played him two rounds yesterday and he was exhausted and maybe that was the wrong choice for me - playing him two rounds - but he wanted to play in the alternate-shot (on Friday) and I had to give him his due," said Watson.

"He said, 'I've got a good record in the alternate shot'. Today I talked to him and Keegan (Bradley) and Webb (Simpson) and said they would be sitting in the afternoon.

"I expected exactly what Phil said to me. He said, 'We can get it done, captain. We want the chance'. I said, 'Well, I think the way this golf course sets up the four teams I put out there gives us the best chance'.

"He lobbied again. He texted me, he said, 'Give us a chance'. I had to tell him no."

Mistake

But Watson admitted that he may have made a mistake by choosing to send out Jimmy Walker and Rickie Fowler for the fourth successive session with the duo being thrashed by Graeme McDowell and Victor Dubuisson 5&4.

Watson said: "It may have been a mistake that I put Jimmy and Rickie out (for) four matches. I thought they could handle it. I think Jimmy got a little bit tired today.

"Maybe it was not the right decision to play Phil two rounds in a row or Jimmy four rounds in a row. Maybe I regret not understanding that they couldn't handle it."

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