Thursday Threads - Willet v. Mickelson

It's T-minus 24 hours and we have a God that has provided great bounty for golf bloggers everywhere....

Philet of Phil - Peter Willet deserves to lede, but he's going to have to cool his jets while we amuse ourselves with that Mickelson guy....  you know, the one that spoke truth to power in Gleneagles.  Our hero couldn't help himself from using his presser to share some revisionist history.

So, let's go to the videotape transcript (h/t Shack):

This is a year where we feel as though Captain Love has been putting us in a position to succeed. He's taken input from all parties. He's making decisions that have allowed us to prepare our best and play our best, and I believe that we will play our best. 

Now we are playing a very strong European Team and I don't know what that means results-wise, but our best golf will come out this week and that's our goal.

OK, nothing wrong with a solid par on the opening hole....Not only did he compliment his Captain (errr, his hand-picked captain),  but in that second 'graph he even covered for Davis' gaffe.  Well played, Sir, are we done here?  No?  You sure you want to go on?  OK, if you must....

Q. You've played for ten of them. How much difference can or does a captain make? 

Good times?

PHIL MICKELSON: Unbelievable. It all starts with the captain. I mean, that's the guy that has to bring together 12 strong individuals and bring out their best and allow them on a platform to play their best. That's the whole foundation of the team. You're saying -- I understand and I hear -- well, guys just need to play better or they just need to putt better. Absolutely you do. 

But you play how you prepare. And in major championships, when we win or play well in majors, it's because we prepared properly for those events. And that allowed to us bring out our best golf. And in a Ryder Cup, you have to prepare properly for the event.

Now, I see these looks, like what are you talking about. Let me give you an example, if I may (laughter). 

JOHN DEVER: You may. 

PHIL MICKELSON: Twelve years ago, okay, in 2004, Tiger and I were paired together and we ended up not playing well. And was that really the -- was that the problem? I mean, maybe. But we were told two days before that we were playing together. And that gave us no time to work together and prepare.

He found out the year before when we played at The Presidents Cup in 2003 that the golf ball I was playing was not going to work for him. He plays a very high-spin ball and I play a very low-spin ball, and we had to come up in two days with a solution.

You may, but you really shouldn't....  We can stipulate that the decision to pair Tiger and Phil was, shall we be charitable, ill-conceived.....  The two brought a visceral hostility to the pairing, and there's just no good reason to put them through that.  More importantly, it gave the opposition a target of opportunity....

But Phil, a couple of follow-ups if I may....  You were quite critical of the stewardship of this event at that 2014 presser, yet for an example you went all the way back to the Paleozoic era.... Is there anything you'd like to share about Captains Lehman, Pavin and Love, I (I think we know your feelings about Watson)?

Secondly, I'll assume that you blame the high-spin Nike ball for that OB tee shot on the 18th hole of the afternoon Foursomes, you remember, when you guys were all square and the match hung in the balance....  Remember?  Tiger ignominiously dropping over by that fence that no one even knew was there until you launched it left of left?   But that was the afternoon....  did you also use Tiger's ball in the morning Fourball?  Because you kinda sucked then also.....

Phil explains:

So I grabbed a couple dozen of his balls, I went off to the side, and tried to learn his golf ball in a four- or five-hour session on kind of an isolated -- one of the other holes out there trying to find out how far the ball goes. And it forced me to stop my preparation for the tournament, to stop chipping and stop putting and stop sharpening my game and stop learning the golf course, in an effort to crash-course and learn a whole different golf ball that we were going to be playing. 

And in the history of my career, I have never ball-tested two days prior to a major. I've never done it. It doesn't allow me to play my best. What allows me to play my best is to learn the course, sharpen my touch on the greens, sharpen my chipping out of the rough and ball striking and so forth. 

Instead, I'm taking four or five hours and I'm out trying to learn another ball to allow us to play our best. Had we known a month in advance, we might have been able to make it work. I think we probably would have made it work. But we didn't know until two days prior. 

Now, I loved -- I'm not trying to throw -- to knock anybody here, because I actually loved how decisive Captain Sutton was. I feel like that's a sign of great leadership to be decisive. Had we had time to prepare, I think we would have made it work and could have had some success.

I never realized what a delicate flower our Phil is.... obviously he needs to be kept in an hermetically-sealed hothouse in the days leading up to the event of he simply can't perform.  

And I absolutely get that he's not trying to knock anybody....  because, well, that wouldn't be right.  And I totally get that Captain Sutton's decisiveness good, but Captain Watson's decisiveness bad....but I threw you a tease in a recent post, and Phil provides the segue to complete that thought.

I made the controversial statement that pairing Phil with Tiger was merely the second stupidest thing that Hal Sutton did....  That event was at Oakland Hills and here's the scorecard....  see if you notice anything unusual about it:

Anyone?  Bueller?

OK, you all fail Ryder Cup 101.  All four Par-3's are odd-numbered holes, creating a unique opportunity in foursomes....

On that roster was Fred Funk....  Now the Funkmeister had a decent career, winning a Players Championship in his late forties and all, but he had one skill as it relates to the game of golf.  He hit fairways, and I mean that he hit them all....  So for Friday foursomes, Sutton of course had Funk hit the drive on No. 1, thereby minimizing the one skill he brought to the table.  And he was paired with a guy named Love, who could actually hit those long irons required on the one-shotters....

Sutton corrected it in Day 2, but it didn't matter much because he was paired with Jim Furyk in that match, and they're almost the same player.  I actually advocated at the time for pairing Funk with Tiger in the foursomes, because the Cat might have done some damage playing from nine fairways (including all four Par-5's).  But that required a captain with an IQ minimally in the high two figures....

But tat same Captain Sutton is in Chaska this week, and it seems he didn't get the memo that Phil loved his decisiveness.....because he reminds of why Phil needed that extra practice time with his golf ball....

Sutton, who was one of several former captains to visit the U.S. team room on Tuesday

night, went on to stipulate that Mickelson omitted a crucial fact in his recollection of his pairing with Woods: Lefty had changed to Callaway equipment just prior to the 2004 matches. “Yeah and then he didn't even call me and tell me he was changing the equipment,” Sutton said. “He had [his agent] Steve Loy call me and tell me. And he changed not only equipment, he changed ball too. So, print that. Print that. Print that. He let his whole team down. So he's talking about Hal Sutton? He let his whole team down.”

Now it all comes back....  Phil hadn't played a single event with the new equipment, and played pretty poorly that week....  he played exactly one match with Tiger's ball, but it's all he can remember of the week.

So here's Phil's conclusion:

But that's an example of starting with the captain, that put us in a position to fail and we failed monumentally, absolutely. But to say, well, you just need to play better; that is so misinformed because you will play how you prepare.

Phil, your Ryder Cup record sucks.....  You can blame Sutton and Watson and the Gods for all I care, but, and I'm going to say this slowly, you need to shut your pie-hole and play better.

A Blogger's Cup Runneth Over -  I'm so old that I can remember when we thought Peter Willet was cute with those cheeky tweets as his brother was winning the Masters.....

National Golfer thought it would be good to hear his thoughts on the Ryder Cup and, well, see what you think:

This man was not smiling yesterday.

For the Americans to stand a chance of winning, they need their baying mob of imbeciles to caress their egos every step of the way. Like one of those brainless bastards from your childhood, the one that pulled down your shorts during the school’s Christmas assembly (f**k you, Paul Jennings), they only have the courage to keg you if they’re backed up by a giggling group of reprobates. Team Europe needs to shut those groupies up. 

They need to silence the pudgy, basement-dwelling, irritants, stuffed on cookie dough and pissy beer, pausing between mouthfuls of hotdog so they can scream ‘Baba booey’ until their jelly faces turn red. 

They need to stun the angry, unwashed, Make America Great Again swarm, desperately gripping their concealed-carry compensators and belting out a mini-erection inducing ‘mashed potato,’ hoping to impress their cousin. 

They need to smash the obnoxious dads, with their shiny teeth, Lego man hair, medicated ex-wives, and resentful children. Squeezed into their cargo shorts and boating shoes, they’ll bellow ‘get in the hole’ whilst high-fiving all the other members of the Dentists’ Big Game Hunt Society.

Paul Jennings could not be reached for comment, though I can't help but note that Englishmen would be wise to avoid the subject of dentistry under any circumstances....

This officially takes Davis Love off the hook for his imprudent comments, so we don't need to spend much time on this nonsense.  Of course we'll take a moment to enjoy the schadenfreude.... Danny and Darren Clarke of course issued the appropriate comments, and the author took the position that it was satire....  yeah, good luck with that.

I'm sure it's all Captain Sutton's fault....

Today's History Lesson - Shack had a fun Q&A with Martin Davis, author of a new book on the history of this week's event.  There's always things to learn about the history of our game:

GS: Let’s get to the breaking news first: the book reveals the Ryder Cup started in 1927 and that is not Abe Mitchell atop the trophy. Reveal your sources. Tell all!

MD: Contrary to published reports and in the media guides from the European Tour and the PGA of America for many years claiming the first Ryder Cup first took place in

1927, the first Ryder Cup was actually contested in 1926 at Wentworth in southern England. 

The story that had been put out for many years held that Sam Ryder was sitting in the Wentworth Clubhouse celebrating with the British pros a win over an American Team captained by Walter Hagen - eating chicken sandwiches and drinking champagne, it was reported - when Ryder reportedly said, "this was great, we must do it again, I'll even donate a trophy."

It's a nice story, but it's simply not true. 

In our research, we found that Ryder announced in late 1925 that the inaugural Ryder Cup would take place at Wentworth in early June of 1926. It was reported in several of the biggest, most well-respected newspapers in England. 

Hmmmm.....this is certainly news to me.  is there a reason that they elide that event:

In the spring of 1926 some 800,000 English coal miners went on strike for higher wages and better working conditions. In sympathy, the other major unions in the UK - including all of the transportation workers - joined the miners. It was referred to as The General Strike. It effectively shut down the entire country.

Playing captain Walter Hagen and four other members of the first American Team had already made it into England before the strike. (Ryder had asked Hagen to form a team to play for the Cup in late 1925.) But other original members of the Team - including such big-name players as Sarazen, Farrell, Diegel and MacFarlane - couldn't get into the country. So Hagen asked five expats that were living in the US and had made it into England to try to qualify for the Open Championship to fill out the American side. The five included two Brits, two Scots (one was Tommy Armour, the famed Silver Scot) and an Australian trick shot artist (Joe Kirkwood). The "Americans" got waxed, 13 1/2 to 1 1/2, losing to captain Ted Ray's British Team.

 Now, about that trophy:

For years the narrative was that Sam Ryder, in ordering the trophy from jewler Mappin and Webb, had the figure crafted on top in the image of his good friend and golf teacher Abe Mitchell. It was a romantic story of friendship and loyalty. 

In researching the origins of the Cup, we went to England and tried to find the origins of the Cup. We hired the world's expert on the Ryder Cup (and other sporting trophies), John Bowles, to track down some of the new facts we uncovered. In doing so, he found that the trophy was not a custom made one ordered by Ryder, but one that had been in the Mappin and Webb's catalog for a number of years, thus dashing the romantic feel-good story. In addition, we uncovered five or six additional facts that clearly showed that this wasn't Abe Mitchell on top of the Ryder Cup, but there sure was a striking resemblance. But you'll have to get the book to glean what we uncovered.

So they gave these out for low net at their Member-Guests?  There's more good stuff at the link, including some early gamesmanship that belies Jack's premise that it's just an exhibition.

Quick Hits -  Loose ends and cheap shots on today's subject:

15 Cool Items You Can Find At The Ryder Cup Merchandise Pavilion - Someone please get me the den caddie for my man cave:

But I prefer that it say, "Your Name Here".

10 things we really want to see at the 2016 Ryder Cup - Including a fond remembrance of a funny golf celebration past:

Phil Mickelson and Zach Johnson figure out the high five

The duo's goofy handshake at the Presidents Cup singlehandedly reverted golf's "cool" factor by 25 years. Forget camaraderie and strategy; how to execute a high five should have been at the forefront of the American task force checklist.

Surely that was a result of Captain Haas failing to set them up to succeed.  

The WAGs Of The Ryder Cup - Because I think Maggot still reads the blog:

She seems to be dressing more appropriately at the golf course, which means it's mourning in America.

Is it us, or is Davis Love III strangely obsessed with Bill Belichick?  No, it's officially a thing, which is Ok as long as the Euros don't show up in N.Y. Giant unis....  I'm hoping for hoodies for Sunday singles.