Tom Watson ripped into US team at Saturday night team meeting

muttleee said:
Makes you wonder why a team which is always stronger on paper continually underperforms in this one event? Players can't make themselves play well...if they could, all top pros would be shooting 63 every round and they obviously aren't. However I suspect that happy, contented, committed players are more likely to play better than those who are annoyed or feel under-valued etc. The margins between winning and losing can be tiny so even the smallest thing the captain can do to make his players feel more confident can make a difference. The European team were a picture of bliss and contentment compared to the Americans last week but I can't help wondering hypothetically what the result would've been if McGinley had captained the Americans and Watson the Europeans. I personally wouldn't be confident of a European win in that situation. The captain must make a difference.

Just look at the way Tony Jacklin transformed European fortunes when he took over the captaincy. He had to use pretty much the same players as before but he gave them a belief and a pride in themselves that they'd lacked up until that point. His professionalism and motivation made a huge difference to team morale and the results soon started to improve. He said recently that, "it was about making the players feel as comfortable as possible." Successive European captains have taken the same approach...can any American captains say they've done the same? It certainly looks like Watson can't.
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:thup: nail and head= done.
 
Simbo said:
why shouldn't he get ripped into his team???? That's what good managers do,
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You clearly dont understand good management. in sport or Business ripping into your team or employees is not the best way to improve performance. A good manager should never raise his voice. to be a good manager you need to get respect from your team. Getting a dressing down just makes you think they're a knob then you'll get the bare minimum
 
hovis said:
You clearly dont understand good management. in sport or Business ripping into your team or employees is not the best way to improve performance. A good manager should never raise his voice. to be a good manager you need to get respect from your team. Getting a dressing down just makes you think they're a knob then you'll get the bare minimum
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Not everyone responds to the 'carrot' though, some still need the 'stick'. Most respond better when both are used in my experience.

Do you think Fergie never raised his voice, ripped into his team or gave anyone a dressing down? Yet he is one of the best team managers there has been, perhaps even the best.

You are quite correct about having to get the respect of the team though, and for whatever reason, it does appear he never managed to do so.


Giving out gifts before the game has ended should have the US media questioning the concentration, focus and effort of the team imo, not the manager.

Finally, let's not forget Tom Watson has experience of winning the Ryder Cup as a player and a manager, most of those players who let the team down do not; I'd hazard a guess the vast majority of his critics don't either.
 
muttleee said:
Makes you wonder why a team which is always stronger on paper continually underperforms in this one event?
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Sorry but I cannot see that the US team this year was, in any way, stronger on paper than the Europeans and, in truth, the Americans knew that for once, at least, they were underdogs.
 
I was appalled when I first heard about Mickleson's outburst but now it looks to me as if he was speaking for the whole team. Certainly, no one rose to defend Watson. I agree with what's been said before about his attitude, he'd have been much better off saying "Thanks for the gift, boys, I really appreciate it. Now go out & get me the real one!" Just read Stan Collymore's autobiography and he says that the managers he played well for were the ones who told him how talented he was and how much they enjoyed watching him play. I think most of us are the same, I know I wouldn't respond well to a bollocking if I had, as I am sure at least some of the Americans did, done my very best.
 
MetalMickie said:
Sorry but I cannot see that the US team this year was, in any way, stronger on paper than the Europeans and, in truth, the Americans knew that for once, at least, they were underdogs.
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The Americans have a better average world ranking (16 compared to 18 for Europe, McGinley said) but still managed to be underdogs. That says a lot!
 
The American press will always say how wonderful everyone is; whether true or false.

If I recall from my younger days when he was a regular player he was pretty volatile and moody - now he's been around a while and has a bit of cash he becomes a legend according to the pundits so I can see there might be some truth in the OP's observation.

But I still think PM was out-of-line washing his Team's 'dirty laundry' in public.
 
Maninblack4612 said:
I was appalled when I first heard about Mickleson's outburst but now it looks to me as if he was speaking for the whole team. Certainly, no one rose to defend Watson. I agree with what's been said before about his attitude, he'd have been much better off saying "Thanks for the gift, boys, I really appreciate it. Now go out & get me the real one!" Just read Stan Collymore's autobiography and he says that the managers he played well for were the ones who told him how talented he was and how much they enjoyed watching him play. I think most of us are the same, I know I wouldn't respond well to a bollocking if I had, as I am sure at least some of the Americans did, done my very best.
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I'd agree with this
 
hovis said:
You clearly dont understand good management. in sport or Business ripping into your team or employees is not the best way to improve performance. A good manager should never raise his voice. to be a good manager you need to get respect from your team. Getting a dressing down just makes you think they're a knob then you'll get the bare minimum
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It depends what type of management your in.
Respect is the word you used and that is the key.
Once you have earnt respect you can speak to people different,just look at Sir Alex.
He could raise his voice,tell people they were playing crap and then they would go out
and play better,purely because he had there respect.
In other areas you have to do it softly softly.
I for one thought Tom would be a good manager,however he certainly lost a little
bit of my respect during the RC.
When asked questions by the media sometimes it was like getting blood out of stone for
a decent response.
 
muttleee said:
The Americans have a better average world ranking (16 compared to 18 for Europe, McGinley said) but still managed to be underdogs. That says a lot!
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But surely nobody puts too much faith in the World Rankings with their historical in built bias towards points awarded for events on the US Tour.

Going into this event Europe clearly had more recent Major winners and contenders together with more players in form. They were not favourites with the bookies without a reason.
 
c1973 said:
Not everyone responds to the 'carrot' though, some still need the 'stick'. Most respond better when both are used in my experience.

Do you think Fergie never raised his voice, ripped into his team or gave anyone a dressing down? Yet he is one of the best team managers there has been, perhaps even the best.

You are quite correct about having to get the respect of the team though, and for whatever reason, it does appear he never managed to do so.


Giving out gifts before the game has ended should have the US media questioning the concentration, focus and effort of the team imo, not the manager.

Finally, let's not forget Tom Watson has experience of winning the Ryder Cup as a player and a manager, most of those players who let the team down do not; I'd hazard a guess the vast majority of his critics don't either.
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Sums up my thoughts too!

Watson's 'distance' from team members, compared to McGinley's was certainly a factor too.

He was right though - they did stink at Foursomes! That's where it was lost imo! But he had to share some blame there too.
 
Foxholer said:
Sums up my thoughts too!

Watson's 'distance' from team members, compared to McGinley's was certainly a factor too.

He was right though - they did stink at Foursomes! That's where it was lost imo! But he had to share some blame there too.
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Yep, I tend to agree with you agreeing with me. ;)

The key word in all this is 'share' and I don't think I've read about or witnessed any of the players taking their 'share' of the blame. Pretty sure the US media haven't apportioned any 'share' onto the players either (I may well be wrong though). Tom Watson hasn't attempted to avoid his 'share', but the players have (as far as I can make out) and that speaks volumes imo.
 
MetalMickie said:
But surely nobody puts too much faith in the World Rankings with their historical in built bias towards points awarded for events on the US Tour.

Going into this event Europe clearly had more recent Major winners and contenders together with more players in form. They were not favourites with the bookies without a reason.
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That's why I said the Americans were stronger on paper. There are more points in US events but then those are the events that have the strongest fields.
 
Watson has often been described as a very cold person by the American press, I think a lot of people fell in love with him at Turnberry, which was a great display. But you could even see during play at the Ryder Cup, he'd be sitting on his buggy 40 yards away from play whereas McGinley was really involved without micromanaging the players, you rarely seen McGinley on the course but you would see his 5 VC's because McGinley was inside watching what was happening on TV because that was the best way for him to watch everything and then be able to relay instructions back out to the VC's. Garcia said it himself, McGinley's captaincy was as close to perfection as you could get. Whereas Watson was the US Faldo
 
Should not really come as a surprise. For mickleson to come out with his comments, something went off. It would not surprise me to hear of others making comments. One thing that springs to mind with hindsight is that big phil spoke up in defence of his team and was lambasted by all and sundry (including people on here). Now the full events ? Are out maybe people's opinions of Phil may change.
Deffo a future Ryder cup captain me finks.
 
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