KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii » If Tom Watson held any ill feelings about his experience as Ryder Cup captain last September, the Hall of Fame golfer is letting them go a day at a time.
The eight-time major-winner briefly addressed his Ryder Cup experience during Friday’s first round of the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai, saying he was pleased at the way Patrick Reed and Jimmy Walker played en route to winning the opening two weekends of the PGA Tour on Maui and Oahu.
"Yeah, they lit it up, didn’t they?" Watson said. "I’m proud of Jimmy and Patrick, and the way they played at Ryder Cup."
Reed went 3-0-1 for the Americans in their 161⁄2 to 111⁄2 loss to the Europeans at Gleneagles in Scotland nearly four months ago. Walker had one win, one loss and three halves. After handing out praise for those two, Watson took it a step farther.
"I’m proud of the way all the players played on the Ryder Cup team," Watson said. "They gave it their best shot. The other team just played better is the bottom line. It was a great event for the Europeans. It was not a great event for us, although we had our moments.
"On Sunday, we actually had them tied in the early going in the early matches. If the 12 matches had ended the way they got off to the start that they did early Sunday around 1 o’clock, it might have ended different. Man, we had them tied. We had a bunch of matches up and a bunch of tied matches. It wasn’t to be."
Across the Pacific Ocean a day earlier, Phil Mickelson made his first comments since his controversial remarks after the Ryder Cup loss. In that September press conference Mickelson said he felt the American team had strayed from the winning formula and the system Paul Azinger designed as captain when the USA beat the Europeans in 2008. He felt the players were more invested in the process of deciding the game plan.
Since his comments, the USGA formed a committee to address what the Americans can do better in order to compete. The USA has lost eight of the past 10 Ryder Cups to the Europeans.
"I’m more about looking forward and trying to move forward from it and to really make the next 10 Ryder Cups the best we can," Mickelson said after his round at the Humana in Palm Springs, Calif. "We have some really smart guys with a lot of great input. We have another meeting soon. And I think it will get us on the right track with a good game plan with good continuity from year to year. I’m excited.
"Who knows if it will bring the results we want or not. But there’s a lot of good, smart people in there. We’re moving forward and trying to make this work. And that’s exciting, I think."
As for the 65-year-old Watson, he has moved forward as well. When asked if he needed to let it go, he said, "Sure, because there’s nothing we can do about it now."
