After Team USA’s defeat at the Ryder Cup and Phil Mickelson’s verbal take down of Captain Tom Watson at the press conference we all knew there was more to this ugly story. Bob Harig of ESPN has now given us an inside look in the USA team room on Saturday night where Watson reached the peak of his dysfunction.
Harig quotes multiple sources present at the meeting that must have made the Sunday press conference look like a love fest. 
Four sources who witnessed the proceedings in the U.S. team room at the Gleneagles Hotel said Watson took no responsibility for any shortcomings, scoffed at a gift that the U.S. team members gave him, ridiculed several European team players and started the proceedings by denigrating the Americans’ play that afternoon.
“You could have heard a pin drop in that room,” one of those in attendance said.”He was pissed. It all went from there.”
Harig details just how tense it was in the team room and just how unbelievably rude and distant Watson was to his players.
Despite the 10-6 deficit, the U.S. team was fairly upbeat Saturday evening looking ahead to the Sunday singles, the pairings for which had just been announced. Fresh in the players’ minds was the fact that Europe had come back from the same margin two years earlier at Medinah. And two players in the room, Mickelson and Jim Furyk, were on the 1999 U.S. team that also came back from that score on the final day at The Country Club in Brookline.
They gathered in the team room that night — a hotel ballroom at the lavish Gleneagles Hotel with TVs, ping-pong tables, food and drink. They were joined by their wives or girlfriends (except for Fowler), as well as their caddies and their significant others. Some of the hotel staff were in the room, as were a few members of the PGA of America staff. In all, more than 40 people were there when Watson returned to the team room after speaking to the media about the Sunday pairings.
Watson started by saying, according to all of the sources: “You stink at foursomes.”
After praising the rookie team of Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth, Watson went through the Sunday singles pairings and ridiculed several members of the European side as he went through the matchups. Soon after, Watson was presented a gift by Furyk, a replica of the Ryder Cup trophy that was signed by every member of the team. Instead of thanking them, the sources said Watson said the gift meant nothing to him if the players didn’t get the real Ryder Cup on Sunday and that he wanted to be holding it aloft on the green in victory.
Said one of the sources: “That’s almost verbatim. He said it basically means nothing to me.”
Added another: “It was fairly shocking that he treated this thoughtful gift with such disdain.”
When Watson was done, other players, as is standard, were invited to speak, and several did, as well as assistant captains Andy North, Raymond Floyd and Steve Stricker. (North also works as an ESPN golf commentator.) Mickelson went last, and he came to the front of the room, then sat in a chair with his back to Watson while he addressed the team, telling it, among other things, that he felt good about a comeback.
“Phil went player by player and told a story about each one,” one source in the room said. “It changed the tenor of the room from completely negative and heads down to ‘Let’s give this a go tomorrow.’ He gave almost 180 degrees difference than what Tom did.” 
It looks like Phil Mickelson, who some thought may have cost himself a future captaincy with his remarks, actually acted more like a captain that night than Watson.
Watson’s criticism didn’t stop with that meeting as he has taken no responsibility for the loss, called out his players and even berated them as they finished playing on Sunday.
According to three witnesses, Watson greeted several of the singles losers Sunday, including Bradley, by telling them they should have played better.
Phil took a few shots for his critique of Watson on Sunday with many, including me, saying that while his grievances were right on it was the improper forum to air them.
Phil is now looking like the boy who finally said the Emperor has no clothes. Watson’s rule was ineffective, distant, discourteous and dysfunctional.
This entire episode will be a stain on Watson’s career, not the loss but his ineffectiveness as a Captain. But hopefully it will be the impetus for the much needed change at The PGA of America as they select future Ryder Cup Captains.
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