When Phil Mickelson blasted a golf legend after losing the 2014 Ryder Cup to Team Europe

Phil Mickelson didn't take kindly to losing in the 2014 Ryder Cup, and he lashed out at his captain following the defeat. Tom Watson had captained that year, and it led to a five-point defeat at the hands of the Europeans.

Watson's captaincy was not, in Mickelson's eyes, as good as Paul Azinger's had been in the past, and he made that plain in the post-tournament press conference when he hit out at Watson for some perceived mistakes. In 2014, the PGA Tour star said via The Guardian:

"We had a great formula in ’08. I don’t know why we strayed,” Mickelson said. “I don’t know why we don’t go back. What Zinger did was great.”

Not to leave anything up for interpretation, Mickelson expounded:

“There were two things that allow us to play our best I think that Paul Azinger did, and one was he got everybody invested in the process. He got everybody invested in who they were going to play with... The other thing that Paul did really well was he had a great game plan for us, you know, how we were going to go about doing this. How we were going to go about playing together."

Mickelson said that Azinger had everything, down to the golf ball, the format, and everything, mapped out so that everyone knew what was going on before it happened. That, Mickelson said plainly, brought out Team USA's "best golf."

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Tom Watson responded to Phil Mickelson's gripe

Phil Mickelson didn't hold back in his assessment of 2014 Ryder Cup captain Tom Watson, a golf legend in his own right. Watson reportedly refused a plea from Mickelson to try and play extra to lead Team USA to a win.

Phil Mickelson called out Tom Watson in 2014 (Image via Getty)

When asked about Phil Mickelson's stern comments, Watson simply said (via The Guardian):

“He has a difference of opinion. That’s OK. My management philosophy is different than his. It takes 12 players to win. It’s not pods. It’s 12 players. I did talk to the players, but my vice-captains were very instrumental in making decisions as to whom to pair with."

As for the comparisons to Paul Azinger, Watson said he just had a "different philosophy." He added:

“I did have most of them play in the practice rounds together who played most of the time in the matches. I think that was the proper thing to do. Yes, I did mix-and-match a little bit from there, but again, you have to go with the evolution of the playing of the match and see who is playing the best and who to play with whom, and that’s what I did.”

The United States would move on to Davis Love III in the 2016 Ryder Cup and he helped restore them to glory with a win over Darren Clarke's European side.