Tom Watson ripped into US team at Saturday night team meeting

It seemed Faldo wanted to treat it all as a bit of fun and was very unsure of his best selections, made a series of gaffes and seemed unable to galvanise the players in the team room. Whether Watson was a good or bad captain, he hasn't been the only one over the years on both sides but they come in, try their best and have to live and die by the result. Whatever goes on behind closed doors should in my opinion stay there
 
HomerJSimpson said:
It seemed Faldo wanted to treat it all as a bit of fun and was very unsure of his best selections, made a series of gaffes and seemed unable to galvanise the players in the team room. Whether Watson was a good or bad captain, he hasn't been the only one over the years on both sides but they come in, try their best and have to live and die by the result. Whatever goes on behind closed doors should in my opinion stay there
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Sounds just like what happened with Watson as well then
 
Liverpoolphil said:
Sounds just like what happened with Watson as well then
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Possibly but whatever was said in the Europe team room with Faldo in charge stayed in there for the most part and I would have preferred that the US team and Mickleson in particular had left it behind closed doors too. I fail to see what publicly castigating Watson minutes after the presentation served and what the revelations about the gift, and these comments about the foursomes performance (probably justified imo) serve to do and what good apart from humiliating Watson they continue to serve?
 
Should Watson be immune to critiscim ?

It appears that some think he is this angelic person that a bad word must not be said about.

he was poor as captain - his team got stuffed and and he is rightly being criticised for his mistakes.
 
HomerJSimpson said:
Possibly but whatever was said in the Europe team room with Faldo in charge stayed in there for the most part and I would have preferred that the US team and Mickleson in particular had left it behind closed doors too. I fail to see what publicly castigating Watson minutes after the presentation served and what the revelations about the gift, and these comments about the foursomes performance (probably justified imo) serve to do and what good apart from humiliating Watson they continue to serve?
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Good point.
You win together you lose together.
 
Liverpoolphil said:
Should Watson be immune to critiscim ?

It appears that some think he is this angelic person that a bad word must not be said about.

he was poor as captain - his team got stuffed and and he is rightly being criticised for his mistakes.
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Win as a team lose as a team. When Europe have lost, and when the US have been beaten, especially in the way they capitulated at Medinah there has never been such castigation of a captain and I think it should all have been done behind closed doors and not in full media glare. Other captains made mistakes and never got this level of personal attack. I fail to see exactly why you feel Watson in particular needs to be hounded so much.
 
HomerJSimpson said:
Win as a team lose as a team. When Europe have lost, and when the US have been beaten, especially in the way they capitulated at Medinah there has never been such castigation of a captain and I think it should all have been done behind closed doors and not in full media glare. Other captains made mistakes and never got this level of personal attack. I fail to see exactly why you feel Watson in particular needs to be hounded so much.
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Faldo was castigated by many people - so was James both in the public eye

I dont believe he should be "hounded" but i also dont believe he is immune from critisim - it was his team and they lost badly and it looks like he failed to inspire his team and made mistakes. He is grown man - he can handle it.
 
Liverpoolphil said:
Faldo was castigated by many people - so was James both in the public eye

I dont believe he should be "hounded" but i also dont believe he is immune from critisim - it was his team and they lost badly and it looks like he failed to inspire his team and made mistakes. He is grown man - he can handle it.
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We're going round in circles. I just think it should have been handled with more dignity and done behind closed doors and don't see what Mickleson's comments and the subsequent stories achieved whether he made mistakes or not. The team room was the place for those conversations but as I say, you'll keep going on I'm leaving it there
 
HomerJSimpson said:
When Europe have lost, and when the US have been beaten, especially in the way they capitulated at Medinah there has never been such castigation of a captain and I think it should all have been done behind closed doors and not in full media glare.
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At Medinah the Americans were 10-6 up on Saturday night and it looked to everyone as if Love had done a great job. They were steamrollered in the singles by a record-breaking European performance and that's the session that has least input from the captain. It could all have been so different...if Rose hadn't holed that outrageous putt on the 17th, for example. Having said that, I wonder if Love and his team might have been guilty of a little complacency.
 
At the end of the day you are representing your Country/continent in one of the biggest sporting events in the world. Professional pride and your own will to win should make you fight as hard as possible to win your match. Not liking your captain is no excuse for playing rubbish and using that as an excuse just shows a complete lack of heart/bottle/spirit. I've no doubt the captain can make a difference but basically saying you didn't play very well because you didn't like his management style etc is frankly pathetic.
 
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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Fergie never criticised his players in public though which is what Watson did in his news conference on Saturday night. I worked in the media centre at the RC and could not believe some of these answers on Saturday night's media conference.

http://asaptext.com/pga/media/ryder.../transcripts/tom_watson_2014_09_27_19_14.html
 
I've read all the reports and if Watson did take that path then I think that was a misjudgement on his part. I still don't think Phil should have criticized him in public though.

The thing is these guys are golfers. Not footballers, rugby players etc etc who are used to the hairdryer treatment. These guys have teams of people around them smothering them with compliments and positive reinforcement day after day. Golf is a game of confidence, if you are confident and positive in what you are doing, you tend to play better. It's just the way it is. We all know that, even as amateurs.

Knocking them is going to dent that confidence and then hey presto they play crap.

When they're on tour do their coaches tell them there rubbish and need to try harder, their caddies or their psychologists. NO. So what would make Watson think that would work now ?

Now take a look at the European team. Its seems nothing but positive reinforcement. Even at Medinha when we were 10-6 down, same as the US this time, did they get the hairdryer treatment. Not from what I can make out. It was all you are all great players, we can still win this. So more of the same they are used to week in week out.

Just my 2 cents.
 
andrew_mac said:
Fergie never criticised his players in public though which is what Watson did in his news conference on Saturday night. I worked in the media centre at the RC and could not believe some of these answers on Saturday night's media conference.

http://asaptext.com/pga/media/ryder.../transcripts/tom_watson_2014_09_27_19_14.html
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There are a lot of pretty telling quotes from Watson in that transcript, such as:

"The afternoon, we didn't play well, and we had players that didn't quite get it done."
" I actually just followed the last group, and of course that got off to a bad start and got worse."
"They just didn't live up to the standards that the Europeans did this afternoon."
"It's up for the actors to go out there and act. They haven't acted well enough to get that standing ovation at the end in the last two Ryder Cups."
"I don't know if you can question my decisions, but the play was not up to standard for our team."

All very negative and putting the blame pretty squarely on the players. No wonder it wasn't a happy team room on Saturday night.
 
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