Meanwhile In Irish Ryder Cup Drama Rekindled, McGinley & Clarke Won't Be Exchanging Lineup Thoughts Anytime Soon

Not surprisingly, one of the brighter minds in golf was on Feherty this week and it was the engaging, easy going chat you'd expect for two big personalities who've known each other a long time.

David Feherty asked 2014 Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley what he and Darren Clarke fell out over, and McGinley still isn't sure.

Samuel Ryder would be so happy to see how his little gold cup brings people together!

Captain Watson: "The way it played out at the end with Phil making the comments that probably should have been made in a private room."

Tom Watson has been pretty quiet about the 2014 Ryder Cup and ensuing fallout (task force!). But visiting St. Andrews this week to promote a British Golf Museum exhibition of five of his Open trophies, he opened up a bit more about various key decisions and most intriguingly, the falling out with Phil Mickelson. Perhaps trying to get put the entire cup to bed so that Open week will be all about saying goodbye to the event that defined his career.

The Herald's Jim Black with Watson's extensive Ryder Cup comments, including this...

"It was disappointing, but we got beat by the better team. Our team played its heart out, and, after getting off to a great start on the Sunday, if they had continued along that path we could have been right there at the end.
"But the European team responded in the singles matches and when your team is 56 shots higher, you don't expect to win. The European team played better than we did.

"The bottom line is that I made the decisions based on the best information at the time and I had the support of my vice captains. We made collective decisions on who was going to play with whom."

He did lament overplaying Jimmy Walker of all his decisions. I'm not sure that was the clarity we were seeking but hey, it's a regret!

Task Force Founder Bishop: Phil Pulling The Strings

Ted Bishop debuts as a guest columnist for Golf Magazine's weekly digital offering and while I can't link to the piece this golf.com summary will have to do. **Link added at golf.com.

It's worth checking out what the former PGA President has to say about the task force he envisioned (but did not end up participating in).

Bishop, in an entertaining bit of behind-the-scenes dishing, asserts that a majority of the task force wanted Fred Couples but that Mickelson, like an Iowa caucus-goer, steered the lemmings toward his choice: Davis Love.

"It’s clear that Mickelson controlled the tenor of the task-force meetings. Last week, when a reporter asked Love how he evolved from a task-force member to captain, Phil practically knocked down Davis to grab the microphone. Mickelson was quick to point out that Love had not lobbied for the job. He said Davis sees the big picture, has the experience and is a perfect fit. He also acknowledged that Love had made mistakes at Medinah and that he had learned from those mistakes. Phil capped his remarks by saying, “Davis will put us in a position to succeed rather than create obstacles to overcome.” Phil was clearly taking another shot at Watson."

Meanwhile, the AP's Doug Ferguson takes Mickelson, Tim Finchem and the task force to, gulp, task, for potentially killing the fall PGA Tour events that draw Big Break ratings (or worse) and haven't been well attended by top-ranked players. Ferguson says the task force should have made the "health of the tour" their "first priority" but instead of left the fall four exposed to one Billy Payne decision from total irrelevance.

What's to keep Augusta National from following suit and no longer offering a spot in the Masters to winner? And if those tournaments go away, does the PGA Tour become even more of a closed shop and a time when it's hard to keep track of all the promising young Americans?

Most disappointing is the silence of PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem, except to commend the PGA of America for including his players in the process. It was just over a year ago that Finchem and former PGA president Ted Bishop shared the stage and boasted of a new era of cooperation between the two organizations.

Merry Mex: "If I had a losing record in the Ryder Cup, I’d keep my mouth shut.”

Lee Trevino is standing up for his buddy Tom Watson in the wake of Ryder Cup and task force.

Cameron Morfit at golf.com with the report:

“Tom Watson is a good friend of mine,” Trevino says. “I’ve got a hell of a lot of respect for the guy, and I was really angry about the way they treated him [after his U.S. team was trounced at Gleneagles last fall]. I don’t know what went on behind the scenes, but the players have to understand he worked his butt off for two years and all they did was show up and go play.

“If Phil Mickelson wants to say what he said, it’s up to him. I thought it would have come out a lot better from someone like Patrick Reed, who went 3-0-1, instead of a guy who has been a part of so many losing teams. If I had a losing record in the Ryder Cup, I’d keep my mouth shut.”

Behind The Scenes: Watson v. Mickelson At The Ryder Cup

Jaime Diaz of Golf Digest pieces together the key behind-the-scenes theatrics between Tom Watson and his 2014 Ryder Cup team. What emerges is a portrait of old school not meshing with new school, among other issues

This sounds like a nice starting point for the Watson-Mickelson disdain.

Potential discord was evident in July 2013 at The Greenbrier Classic. Through the caddie grapevine, it got back to Mickelson that Watson had told his playing partners, "I won't be afraid to bench one of these prima donnas." The consensus was that he had been talking primarily about Woods and Mickelson.

As for the Mickelson benching Saturday, Diaz confirms the final news was delivered to Mickelson via text. Old school goes new school!

Mickelson lobbied hard to get Watson to change his mind, asking in person and then texting him. At least one assistant captain was in favor, advising Watson that if Mickelson didn't play at all on Saturday, it could cause a distracting controversy.

According to one observer, Watson said, "Yeah, I know. But I can deal with that." Watson then texted Mickelson to tell him he wasn't playing and to get ready for his singles match.

There was this from former PGA President Ted Bishop:

"It's very sad," Bishop says. "Tom is an icon, and he gave two years of his life to this job. He had a time-honored old-school style, but with Bubba [Watson] and Patrick Reed, guys he thought might need some extra care, he put his hands on their shoulders and talked to them.

"It was different with Phil. Those two rubbed each other the wrong way."

Note to Ben Crenshaw for the Masters Champions Dinner seating chart: Watson on one side of Phil, Vijay on the other side would probably not be a good idea.

Keegan Still Hasn't Unpacked That Medinah Suitcase

Somewhere on the Really? scale between Bubba's recording a solo rap video and Ted Bishop loses his job for typing "lil girl" is this insight from Keegan Bradley's Golf Magazine interview with Cameron Morfit.

Namely, the suitcase from his losing (but incredibly valiant) 2012 Ryder Cup experience remains unpacked. And presumably, still unpacked after another losing effort at Gleneagles in 2014.

It's still packed up. It's such a bummer, because I had all these plans. I had a bottle of Champagne that was left over from Chicago. I had a bunch of things I wanted to do with the guys, but we've got such a great group of guys that we're going to be tough for years to come.

Something tells me the Ebola sterilization crews here in the States will have another job on their hands once Keegan is ready to open up that suitcase.

“Have we Irish died and gone to golf heaven?”

Karl MacGinty of the Independent files an expansive celebration of all things Irish golf, starting with McIlroy, touching on McDowell and Lowry, then finishes with Captain McGinley.

And this message to Team USA...

America had gone the opposite way with Watson. Their aim was to end 'captaincy by consensus', erroneously thought to be a factor in the stunning reverse suffered by Davis Love and his team in 2012.

One didn't have to wait until Sunday and Phil Mickelson's post-match criticism of his captain to realise how much out of touch Watson was. Key errors with his pairings said it all.

Ironically, with five current Tour stars on the 11-man Task Force, the PGA of America now clearly acknowledges the importance of working with the players. It was a lesson hard-learned.

Yet America would have a better chance of emerging from crisis if they stopped bellyaching about their own shortcomings and fully acknowledged the class shown by McGinley and his team.

Brandel: Arnold Would Never Have Done What Phil Did

Brandel Chamblee's year in review focuses on the turmoil in 2014 golf and he feels the R&A's vote to finally take women to the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews will be the story history looks back on as the defining one for 2014.

I'd suggest history will mock that it took so long even in the face of obvious candidates, and even more obvious hypocrisy of operating as a governing body while blatantly discriminating. Oh, and jacking around with the Old Course too.

Anyway, Chamblee is still upset with Phil Mickelson's Ryder Cup press conference performance, which, like it or not, produced results in the form of coming reforms. And I'm not sure this is the barometer we want for all golfers to live their lives by...

First, let me say that I have lost track of the number of times I have said Phil Mickelson is a gift to golf - he is. He wins often and plays with a recklessness that is a throwback to Arnold Palmer, and in dealing with crowds and the media he once again gets compared with the King. But what he did in the media center on Sunday night of the Ryder Cup, implying it was Tom Watson’s fault the U.S. lost, was something Arnold Palmer never would've done. It made the American side look even worse, which I didn’t think was possible.

Maybe temporarily but in hindsight, it had to be done and Mickelson gets points for taking out the trash.

Chamblee goes on to make one more case for Larry Nelson and suggests that the USA struggles may be tied to karma, a theory I wholeheartedly endorse.

The last thing I am going to say about the Ryder Cup is this: Larry Nelson was promised the captaincy in 1995, didn’t get it and then got stepped over by lesser major winners. What does one typically need to be a Ryder Cup captain? To have won the PGA Championship? Check. He won that twice. How about the national open? Check. How about success in the Ryder Cup? In his first nine matches in the Ryder Cup, he was 9-0. Check. Respect of your peers? Check. For added measure, he served his country on the front lines of battle, willing to put his life on the line for the freedoms we all enjoy. Find those credentials in a player today; go ahead and look. Good luck. Larry Nelson has them all and to those of you who say he's out of touch with today’s players, well, I say to you: How have all those captains who are in touch with today’s players been doing? If there is such a thing as karma for not fulfilling a promise, the PGA of America and U.S. Ryder Cup team are feeling it.

America's Ryder Cup Effort Lacks An Overpaid Leader!

I certainly get the point of Alex Miceli's chat with Jay Bilas this fall regarding America's pitiful Ryder Cup performances (thanks reader Paul), as Bilas points to USA basketball as a model. In particular, the appointment of a leader to run USA Basketball in the form of Jerry Colangelo.

The PGA of America lacks such an infrastructure with its Ryder Cup. With Richard Hills, managing director of Ryder Cup Europe, the U.S. opponents have such an undisputed leader.

Hopefully for American interests, after the PGA’s proposed task-force meetings, Ryder Cup officials will get down to the fundamental question: Who is our leader?

Don't we have enough already?

Johnny: Ryder Cup Task Force "Grasping At Straws"

Adam Schupak quotes PNC Father/Son participant Johnny Miller on a variety of topics, including Johnny's view that Tiger has "one great fight left" in him.

There was this on the Ryder Cup task force Task Force "Task Force":

“They are definitely grasping at straws. You have to sort of admit that Europe is a better team…Medinah could’ve turned it around. I mean, I wanted to throw up for about a week. We had that Ryder Cup. It was just brutal to see that happen. That probably still haunts guys like Stricker, Tiger and Furyk."

Rex Hoggard spoke to Tom Lehman about the group's recent conference call and you'll be glad to know that Tiger, Phil and Ray Floyd not only didn't snooze off, they "took charge." Merica!

“Tiger took charge. Raymond took charge, Phil took charge. We have guys who are very confident, very smart and sure of themselves. Somebody is going to step up and be the leader of this thing and that’s what we need,” said Love, the 2012 captain.

“I can tell you that Tiger, Furyk and Stricker have been blowing my phone up since the meeting. It’s not like we had a meeting and said we’ll see you again in February. Everybody is excited and engaged.”

Trevino: “You can't name me a guy with a plus record that's playing the Ryder Cup right now.”

The PNC Father-Son starts Saturday and former major winners and their kids tee it up for the annual event where they also get to reminisce, misremember and gossip.

Lee Trevino had the recent Ryder Cup on his mind, reports Adam Schupak. He's not exactly touting the "body of work" from America's top players.

"You look statistically: Tiger (Woods, who did not play this year) has a minus record, Mickelson has a minus record. Furyk has got a (10-20-4) record. (10-20-4)! You see what I'm telling you? A (10-20-4) record. I know he's a hell of a player, but he's got a (10-20-4) record. He's a minus-10. (Trevino, on the other hand, sported a 17-7-6 mark.) You can't name me a guy with a plus record that's playing the Ryder Cup right now. (Jordan) Spieth has one now, and then (Patrick) Reed, yeah, he's got a 3-1, right? They're rookies. But you give me a veteran that's played in three or four Ryder Cups, and not one has a plus. You can't win that way. You cannot win."

Couples On Phil's Ryder Cup Benching: "Are you kidding me?"

Joe Passov was at the unveiling of a 6-hole kids course designed by Brian Curley at Southern Dunes where Fred Couples was the special guest.

During a clinic for the youngsters, Couples was asked about the 2014 Ryder Cup. It's clear one of Captain Watson's decisions was bothering him...

Asked about the Ryder Cup, Couples said, “I'm not bashing Tom Watson, but sitting Mickelson, your best team player? Are you kidding me?" Couples, the 1992 Masters champion, has long been a close friend of Watson, whose captaincy of the US team was widely criticized after the September loss in Scotland.