Mickelson apologizes for Sutton captain comments

The history: Since 1979, when golfers from continental Europe were included (before it was just Team Great Britain), Team Europe has won 10 times and retained the trophy once as a result of a tie. Likeable characters such as J.B Holmes and Dustin Johnson will team up with anyone and for the first time in what must seem like forever the team bonding in the U.S. locker room is set to be tight as a nut. “The most important thing is to get along well with your teammate”, he said about the four-ball and foursomes matches scheduled for Friday and Saturday. “So we haven’t talked about Medinah at all. I’m looking forward to it”.

Twice major victor Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, who formed an unbeaten partnership at the 2014 Ryder Cup in Scotland, teed off together on Wednesday morning at Hazeltine, along with U.S. Open champion Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar.

Paul MacCormack checks the speed of the greens at the Ryder Cup. Mickelson is basically a co-captain with Love, and Woods doesn’t have to speak up to be heard. For them it’s often about a sense of community and camaraderie – and how that energises the team to succeed. It’s sustaining the momentum over three days of nonstop action that has been the problem.

Woods, not necessarily known for his sense of humour on the golf course, managed to see the amusing side with a salute to the photographer and a chuckle to himself. “They are very, very talented players and I’m sure they will do their utmost to represent Europe the best that they can this week”. But Europe have recently dominated the foresomes (they won 7-1 in 2014), testament to their collective spirit. That led to the PGA of America creating a task force allowing for player involvement. The word team makes them think of a well-oiled operation, good organisation and shared tasks.

Westwood, playing in his 10th straight Ryder Cup for Europe, took that as a compliment. While the United States focuses entirely on “the task”, which is winning the trophy, Europe puts emphasis on the feeling of doing it together as a team, which is emotionally powerful. “It means we are successful and we are doing it right”.

“There’s a lot of controversy that follows Phil everywhere, I’ll leave it at that”, Sutton told GolfChannel.com’s Rex Hoggard. Mark James, the captain, elected to sit out three of them until Sunday singles. “But once you get over that hurdle, that hump of the first tee and everything that goes on with that, you’re just down to business and you’re just trying to do what you do every day of your life, which is play good golf”. You’ve done pretty much all you can do. “We are all pushing him to, but he’s not going to do it”.

Mickelson’s preparations apparently haven’t been that great during much of his Ryder Cup career. Players wear their university colours, thousands of fans line the fairways and players have to perform for their team, more than themselves.

The American apology came from Mickelson. I felt like the world of golf would be better off if Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson became friends, and I felt like if they played together, had fun and beat somebody, they would end up being friends.

There is rarely a shortage of drama in the Ryder Cup – and that’s before it gets started.

Compare that to Europe and there have only been six contests when rookies have won more than half the points. After a 14-month absence, he plans to return to competitive golf in a little more than two weeks at the Safeway Open in California and surely his game needs some work. That also made McIlroy the FedEx Cup champion for the first time. Winning is a habit.