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To say last week’s Ryder Cup didn’t go the way Phil Mickelson would have wanted is probably putting it a bit mildly.
He lost both matches he played, including the decisive singles contest with Francesco Molinari, and, in so doing, set a new record for most Ryder Cup defeats by any player in the history of the match.
Ouch.
He bounced back yesterday with an opening round of 65 in the Safeway Open at Silverado – and then promptly took a swipe at the way Le Golf National was set up last week.
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“The Europeans did a great thing,” said Mickelson. “They did the opposite of what we do when we have the Ryder Cup here.
“The fairways were 14 to 16 yards wide. Ben Hogan, who is the greatest ball-striker of all time, had a 5% margin of error so, if you hit the ball 300 yards, which we all hit it more than that, you need to have a 30-yard wide fairway to be able to hit it.”
He went on: “The fact is they had brutal rough, almost unplayable, and it’s not the way I play. I don’t play like that. Here, I can miss the fairways, I can get shots out of the rough up on the green and it’s playable.”
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“I’m 48. I’m not going to play tournaments with rough like that any more, it’s a waste of my time. I’m going to play courses that are playable and that I can play aggressive, attacking, make a lot of birdies, style of golf I like to play.”
It’ll be interesting to see if he remains true to his word at next year’s US Open…
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