Mickelson apologises to Sutton

I mean, my God, somebody’s got to be the fall guy. If is needs to be, I can do that. HAL SUTTON

Can the US have overdone their Ryder Cup Task Force thing? Just 48 hours after Rory McIlroy warned such a thing was possible Phil Mickelson was forced into a crawling apology for his comments about former captain Hal Sutton.

Such is Mickelson’s over-enthusiasm for the new American way that he blundered into using Sutton’s decision to pair him and Tiger Woods in 2004 as an example of the bad practice that has blighted the US in the past.

But the 2004 captain – whose strategy led to a record defeat to the US at Oakland Hills and is generally considered to have been one of the poorest American skippers – is actually part of the new system as past captains have been assimilated into the team room at Hazeltine to pass on their experience.

And Sutton was unsurprisingly a little annoyed to be told that he had prepared Mickelson and Woods to fail (he gave them just two days’ notice of their partnership), leading them to “fail monumentally”, in Mickelson’s words.

“I mean, my God, somebody’s got to be the fall guy,” said Sutton.

“If it needs to be me, I can do that. If I still need to shoulder the blame for Phil, I’ll do that. I find it amusing that that’s an issue at the 2016 Ryder Cup. I think Phil better get his mind on what he needs to have it on this week instead of on something that happened 10 years ago.”

Mickelson, who by the evidence of words from captain Davis Love III has been barely able to contain himself on any subject regarding the team’s strategies, seemed to finally realise he needed to calm down.

“I feel awful,” he told the Golf Channel.

“It was never meant to be like that, I was trying to use an example of how a captain can have a strong effect.

“Unfortunately it came across the way it did. I want him to be out here and to be a part of this, so I’ve communicated with him that I’m sorry and I hope that he stays.

“I was totally in the wrong.”