Brandel Chamblee blames Phil Mickelson, Tiger Woods for ‘corrupting’ Ryder Cup experience

Phil Mickelson’s passive-aggressive attack on Tom Watson’s leadership of the U.S. Ryder Cup team has come under fire from several quarters, with Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee the most outspoken in his harsh criticism of the five-time major champion’s “one-man mutiny.”

And even though Tiger Woods watched his once and future teammates’ latest Cup debacle from his couch as he nursed his injured back, Chamblee just could not resist blaming Woods as part of the reason the U.S. blew last week’s Cup as well as six of the last seven biennial competitions.

“We’ve run the numbers. From start to finish, forever, players who are the best go to the Ryder Cup and show off. Not goof off,” said Chamblee, who pointed to Mickelson’s 16-19-6 record as a prime reason for the Americans’ lousy team performances.

“Phil Mickelson, along with the best players of that era, have so corrupted the experience of the Ryder Cup for their fellow competitors by not having records anywhere near what they should, given their rank in the game,” Chamblee continued. “If you’re looking for a reason why the United States continues to lose, you just saw it, you saw it in one man -- Phil Mickelson.”

Chamblee listed Mickelson’s club change immediately before the 2004 Ryder Cup, practicing at an off-site course the day ahead of the event, and his and Woods’ (13-17-3 record in Ryder Cup play) detachment as evidence of Lefty’s lack of commitment to the matches.

“He and Tiger had a disconnect in 2004,” Chamblee griped. “They refused to come together and play better.”

In addition to the “corruption” of Ryder Cups past, Chamblee also blasted Mickelson’s press conference maneuvers for “tainting” this year’s rookies.

“Think about the young players on this team going forward -- Patrick Reed, Jordan Spieth,” said Chamblee. “Jordan Spieth, this is his first Ryder Cup. It’s tainted now. The experience of this Ryder Cup will forever be tainted in his mind. He will have a negative image of the way this week ended, not because he lost, but because they didn’t lose with dignity.

“When it comes time to come together as a team and talk about how good Europe played and what a great experience it is to represent your country,” Chamblee insisted, “win or lose, Phil Mickelson tainted it.”

Mickelson, whose squeaky clean image took a public relations hit when he posted an injury-unrelated withdrawal from the BMW Championship earlier this month, voiced complaints about Watson’s rigid, old-school, and totally failed captaincy that many others -- including members of Team USA -- shared.

Spieth said he understood that if he and partner Patrick Reed played well on Friday morning, they would go out again in the afternoon foursome session. They won big, 5 and 4, over Medinah hero Ian Poulter and Stephen Gallacher, but were sidelined in the p.m.

Keegan Bradley danced around it but his disappointment about being a spectator on Saturday, when Watson kept him and Mickelson out of the morning and afternoon festivities, was obvious.

“We were bummed. It was a bummer,” Bradley said Sunday night. “It was tough, it really was. I wanted to be out there with Phil.”

Mickelson, clearly irked that Watson benched him and Bradley on Saturday, praised 2008 U.S. captain Paul Azinger for his “great formula” that placed the 12 golfers into three groups for practice and competition. As he lobbied for a return to the blueprint that helped the U.S. win its only Ryder Cup this century, Mickelson indirectly bashed the architect of last week’s disaster.

“There were two things that allow us to play our best, I think, that Paul Azinger did,” said Mickelson, whose “best” in ’08 was a 1-2-2 showing. “One was, he got everybody invested in the process. He got everybody invested in who they were going to play with, who the picks were going to be, who was going to be in their ‘pod.’”

Mickelson, who defeated Stephen Gallacher, 3 and 1, in Sunday’s singles after missing an entire day’s action for the first time in his 10 Ryder Cup appearances, noted that “Nobody here was in any decision.”

Despite widespread dissatisfaction with the style and results of Watson’s command, and Mickelson never actually naming the object of his derision, Phil’s remarks did not go over well with many in golf circles.

“It was disappointing to hear some of the things said in the press conference,” PGA of America president Ted Bishop, who played a large role in making Watson captain, told Golfweek. “We were a team all week. There is no set winning formula, except the players playing better on the golf course.”

Even two ex-European captains weighed in with their displeasure with Mickelson violating the “what happens in the team room stays in the team room” credo.

“Should we go into this one hour after we’ve been defeated? The answer is a flat no,” Colin Montgomerie, the winning captain when Europe prevailed in 2010, said on Golf Channel shortly after Chamblee’s “corrupting” comments. “You support your captain under all circumstances. In public, you respect and honor your captain.

“The PGA of America selected Tom Watson as the best choice to try to win the Ryder Cup back,” Monty added. “Unfortunately, the team didn’t perform for Tom.”

Nick Faldo, who lost to Azinger in the renowned ’08 matches, also tsk-tsk’ed Mickelson for telling tales out of school.

“That should have been a private conversation,” Faldo remarked to Reuters. “Phil certainly doesn’t respect Tom Watson. He threw his captain right under the bus.”

Though others did speak up, Mickelson’s thinly veiled criticisms of Watson were what sparked the headlines and the boo-birds.

“That was as close to a one-man mutiny as I’ve ever seen,” Chamblee said after Europe clobbered the Americans on the field at Gleneagles and Mickelson took to the interview room to club the overseer of the Americans’ latest Ryder Cup debacle. “I think that’s a moment that Phil would like to have back.”

It should be interesting if, as time passes and cooler heads prevail, Mickelson asks for a mulligan. After all, this is the same guy who, prior to the proceedings at Gleneagles, tried to yank the Euros’ chain (and especially those of legal combatants Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell) by saying that “not only are we [Americans] able to play together, we also don’t litigate against each other.”

How very five days ago, Phil.