Fred Couples questions Mickelson’s Ryder Cup benching

Some two-and-a-half months after the Ryder Cup was decided, high-profile critics are still scratching their heads about some of U.S. captain Tom Watson’s tactical blunders.

In particular, Fred Couples still doesn’t get why Watson sat Phil Mickelson for all of Day 2 at Gleneagles.

“I’m not bashing Tom Watson, but sitting Mickelson, your best team player? Are you kidding me?” Couples asked rhetorically on Thursday while attending the opening of a six-hole golf course in Maricopa, Ariz., according to Golf.com.

Watson benched Mickelson and his preferred partner Keegan Bradley in the Saturday morning fourballs session in Scotland, most thinking it was in an effort to give Mickelson some rest. Then when they weren’t sent out in the afternoon session of alternate-shot, Mickelson’s weakest Ryder Cup format, Watson was almost universally panned.

Couples, the 1992 Masters champion, is good friends with Watson, but has previously been effusive with praise of Mickelson, who was on all three of the victorious Presidents Cup teams Couples captained.

Of the five-time major winner, Couples said in November, “Phil Mickelson has been the best [team] guy on every team I’ve ever been on, by far.”

Ryan Ballengee is a Yahoo Sports contributor. Find him on Facebook and Twitter.

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