Johnny Miller has been characteristically vocal with his criticism of Tom Watson’s captain’s picks for the U.S. Ryder Cup team, going so far as to question the fellowship among the 12 Americans who will take on the Europeans this week at Gleneagles.
Gregory Shamus
“I don’t even know if the U.S. has chemistry,” a chortling Miller said during a Friday teleconference promoting the 2014 matches that start this Friday.
While Miller opined that FedEx Cup champion Billy Horschel and Deutsche Bank winner Chris Kirk would have been better choices than two of the three players Watson selected -- Keegan Bradley, Webb Simpson and Hunter Mahan -- NBC Sports’ lead analyst said the Americans’ star duo of the 2012 Ryder Cup most certainly had that “chemistry” he said was lacking from Watson’s brood.
“I think they’re just the perfect couple,” Miller said about the partnership of 28-year-old Bradley and his 44-year-old mentor, Phil Mickelson, that went undefeated at Medinah and may have tacked on another, decisive win had Lefty not bowed out of Saturday afternoon’s matches.
“Having gone 3-0, I believe that when Mickelson basically told himself and Keegan that they couldn’t play that afternoon on Saturday, that that could have been the turning point in the Ryder Cup,” said Miller, voicing a view that many others shared. “I’m sure Phil wishes he had never said what he said in telling that Keegan would not play at all, with all his energy, and they didn’t even play very many holes that morning because they won pretty big.”
The partners beat Lee Westwood and Luke Donald, 7-6, in the a.m. foursomes and though Bradley appeared eager to play in a fourth session, Mickelson decided to fold the Americans’ hottest hand. Phil’s reasoning was that both guys would be more rested for Sunday’s singles if they sat out a round.
“I just think that that’s a team that nobody on the European side necessarily wants to face,” said Miler, who noted the recent PGA Tour records of Mickelson (one top-10 finish, three missed cuts, three withdrawals) and Bradley (no wins since 2012) had nothing to do with such trepidation. “That team of Mickelson and Bradley can do magical things out there, and I think they can feel like Chicago was yesterday. That team is going to be maybe the best team on the U.S. side.”
Miller was willing to bet Watson would not dare pair either guy with anyone else this week.
“I don’t think there’s even a prayer that that’s going to be broken up until they lose,” Miller said. “They probably wouldn’t even get broken up if they lost the first two team matches.”
