Top dog Phil Mickelson revels in Tiger Woods' Ryder Cup absence
PHIL MICKELSON carried the look of a man who was revelling in his role as America's top gun yesterday - and he could not help himself in firing off a round in Rory McIlroy's direction.
Mickelson's
barbed remark about the world No1's legal dispute with Graeme McDowell
may or may not have been prompted by McIlroy's recent observation that
the 44-year-old is on the closing holes of his career.
But,
if it was instead aimed at re-opening old wounds within Europe's camp,
it certainly carried extra weight delivered by the self-appointed senior
spokesman of the United States team.
With no
Tiger Woods in the side, Mickelson has lost his competition for the
alpha male role in the American team room at Gleneagles. With his five
Majors, he is the go-to guy for the other 11 and that is just how he
likes it.
Matt Kuchar told a revealing story this week on how Woods's absence has altered the dynamic within the American team room.
It
was intended to be light-hearted but it shone a bright light on how
Mickelson is freed up by the injury to his career-long rival.
"Phil
Mickelson throws down the ultimate gauntlet when he doesn't have a
comeback to whatever you've said. He just says: 'Well, I've won so many
Majors. Suck on that,'" said Matt Kuchar.
"He
can only say that if Tiger's not around. He kind of has to look over
both shoulders and make sure because then Tiger gives him his number."
Fourteen is a mighty big number.
For
all their forced bonhomie on the ping-pong table, Mickelson and Woods
just do not go together at Ryder Cups. Hal Sutton's decision to pair
American golf's two biggest names in 2004 proved a disaster.
It was as if two like poles of a magnet had been placed alongside each other.
He
was forced to split them up after successive defeats to Colin
Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington and then Darren Clarke and Lee
Westwood.
If looks could kill, Mickelson would
have been reduced to a pile of dust by Woods's glare when he put his
drive out of bounds at the 18th at Oakland Hills in the foursomes and
handed Clarke and Westwood victory.
Like Woods, Mickelson's relationship with the Ryder Cup has by and large been painful.
For
all the personal thrill of an unbeaten rookie week in 1995 at Oak Hill
when Bernhard Langer and Seve Ballesteros were among his scalps, it has
been a largely uphill struggle.
Two wins in nine contests, the most recent of which came in Woods's absence in 2008, is a poor return.
Things
were looking up at Medinah two years ago as his partnership with the
human lightning bolt Keegan Bradley delivered three wins in three
matches, including a 7&6 humbling of Westwood and Luke Donald.
But
then Justin Rose putted the lights out on the closing holes to beat him
in their Sunday singles match, Europe won by a point and his story of
Ryder Cup despair had another chapter added.
"I
would like to improve my record. That's certainly a goal. It doesn't
take much to improve my winning percentage, I'll say that," said
Mickelson.
"But I've got a good partner that I'm
going to play again with in Keegan. I don't think I'm letting go of any
secrets there. We seem to have a good partnership and he brings out
some of my best golf so I'm very optimistic that I can improve on my
record.
"Certainly we are the underdog this
time. But what we do have is a great group of 12 guys that really enjoy
each other's company, have a lot of fun together, and are hopeful of
bringing our best games to Scotland because we are going to need it to
make it a tight race on Sunday."
Since
their respective seasons ended early with elimination from the FedEx
Cup play-offs, Bradley has been revving Mickelson up by sending him
video clips of their Medinah triumphs. Evidently, it has worked.
"It's
fun to see his texts back," said Bradley. "We just keep telling each
other that there's no one we'd rather be out there with than each other.
We're just both super, super excited.
"He's clearly been working back home. He's playing great and he's motivated to win this Ryder Cup."
Motivation
comes from many sources. On Tuesday evening, while the Europeans were
listening to Sir Alex Ferguson, the USA team had an audience with Noah
Galloway and Josh Olson, two American servicemen wounded in Iraq.
It
was, thankfully, not a military battle cry but a talk about what was
possible from a position of adversity from men who have lost limbs but
run marathons.
"Josh and Noah gave two of the best speeches that we've had," said Mickelson.
"We're
playing a game and we are trying to overcome challenges to succeed in a
game. These two gentlemen have overcome some of the greatest challenges
that any individual could deal with in life.
"They're
dealing with loss of limbs, they're dealing with near-death
experiences, they're dealing with life challenges, and they're
overcoming those challenges. We, as players, found this to be very
inspirational because of the challenges they're overcoming.
"It makes the challenge of overcoming an incredibly strong European team seem not as great a challenge."
Spoken like a true leader.
WHY THE US WILL WIN
