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CHASKA, Minn. --?Phil Mickelson decided to set the record straight about his ill-fated pairing with Tiger Woods for two matches during the 2004 Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Township, Michigan.?He didnt hold back.Mickelson, who is playing in his 11th consecutive Ryder Cup, was asked at a news conference Wednesday how important the captain is to the success of the team.It all starts with the captain, said Mickelson, who soon after went on to criticize the 2004 decision of U.S. captain Hal Sutton to put him and Woods together for two matches on the first day of the Ryder Cup.We were told two days before that we were playing together, Mickelson said at Hazeltine National prior to a practice round for this weeks Ryder Cup. And that gave us no time to work together and prepare.However, 24 hours after making those comments, Mickelson moved to clarify his remarks and apologized to Sutton. Mickelson said he called Sutton on Wednesday night to apologize and told Golf Channel that his comments were in bad taste and came across like it was a personal attack, and I didnt mean it that way.Ive communicated with him. I feel awful. It was never meant to be like that, Mickelson said. 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 was totally in the wrong. I never should have brought that up. I used an extreme example the way decisions can affect play, and I never should have done that, because it affected Hal.Mickelson and Woods were a surprise team at that Ryder Cup, losing their best-ball match to Colin Montgomerie and Padraig Harrington 2 and 1. Woods and Mickelson combined for five birdies, but they were still defeated.The real problem was the afternoon match, when they were asked to play alternate shot against Darren Clarke -- this years European captain -- and Lee Westwood. The match went to the 18th hole, where the Europeans won 1-up despite making a bogey.In alternate shot, you play with one ball, and that was the issue, Mickelson said.[Woods] found out the year before when we played at the Presidents Cup in 2003 that the golf ball I was playing was not going to work for him, Mickelson said. He plays a very high-spin ball and I play a very low-spin ball, and we had to come up in two days with a solution.So I grabbed a couple dozen of his balls, I went off to the side and tried to learn his golf ball in a four- or five-hour session on kind of an isolated -- one of the other holes out there trying to find out how far the ball goes. And it forced me to stop my preparation for the tournament, to stop chipping and stop putting and stop sharpening my game and stop learning the golf course in an effort to crash-course and learn a whole different golf ball that we were going to be playing.In the history of my career, I have never ball-tested two days prior to a major. Ive never done it. It doesnt allow me to play my best. What allows me to play my best is to learn the course, sharpen my touch on the greens, sharpen my chipping out of the rough and ball striking and so forth.Instead, Im taking four or five hours, and Im out trying to learn another ball to allow us to play our best. Had we known a month in advance, we might have been able to make it work. I think we probably would have made it work. But we didnt know until two days prior.Suttons decision to put Mickelson and Woods together was heavily criticized in the aftermath of what was the worst U.S. Ryder Cup defeat at the time, an 18? to 9? loss. The U.S. trailed 6? to 1? after Day 1 and never recovered. Mickelson went 1-3 at that Ryder Cup, and Woods was 2-3.In the seven Ryder Cups they have both played, that is the only time Woods and Mickelson have been paired together.I find it amusing that thats an issue at the 2016 Ryder Cup, Sutton said in an interview with reporters from GolfWorld and Golfweek. 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.?Sutton, a 14-time winner on the PGA Tour, said he felt it would be good for the game if Woods and Mickelson played together and had success, given their sometimes frosty relationship to that point.You know, Arnold [Palmer] and Jack [Nicklaus] didnt start out to be the best of friends, Sutton said. There was kind of a dethroning going on there. They ended up being great friends. 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.They didnt beat anybody. It couldnt be their fault. It had to be Hal Suttons fault. It had to be.Mickelson, who has won five major championships, including his first earlier that year at the Masters, was trying to make the point that a captain plays a large role in success at the Ryder Cup and that lack of input from the players has hurt the Americans over the years.The U.S. is 2-8 in the past 10 Ryder Cups, with Mickelson making every one of those teams.Im not trying to knock anybody here, Mickelson said. I actually loved how decisive Captain Sutton was. I feel like thats a sign of great leadership, to be decisive. Had we had time to prepare, I think we would have made it work and could have had some success.But thats an example of starting with the captain, that put us in a position to fail, and we failed monumentally, absolutely. But to say, well, you just need to play better; that is so misinformed because you will play how you prepare.Mickelson was clearly anxious to go deep on the subject, as he has often been criticized for his poor Ryder Cup record (16-19-6) and what has been perceived as a lack of leadership on his part. Woods is 13-17-3.Ive had to be accountable for that decision 12 years ago, Mickelson said. Even a month ago, I hear theres an analyst on the Golf Channel that accuses me of being a non-team player for having to go out and work on an isolated hole away from the team, away from my preparation.And Ive had to be accountable for that decision of which I was not part of. Thats a very frustrating thing. I dont know if you can imagine how frustrating it would be to care so much about something like I do about the Ryder Cup and be accountable for many of the decisions that have taken place when youre not a part of those decisions, and thats what Im talking about, ownership.This is ... one of the first years [the players have been given a say]. But we start over every two years, [and that] has been the problem. We havent built on anything and had the continuity, and none of our captains have been vice captains except for one over the 20 years, and we havent had that and we are starting that, and its exciting to be a part of it.Sutton noted that Mickelson had switched equipment companies that week without telling him -- one of the reasons cited for his poor play -- and that the aftermath of the loss affected him personally.I pretty much quit golf after that, Sutton said. I took the blame for everybody. Nobody played good that week. Its tough on a captain when people dont play well. Its hard to beat anybody.If I still need to shoulder the blame for Phils poor play, then Ill do that.? [url=http://www.yeezy350salenz.com/]Discount Yeezy 350 NZ[/url] .com) - Richie Incognito has reportedly been admitted to a psychiatric care unit in Arizona. [url=http://www.yeezy350salenz.com/]Adidas Outlet NZ[/url] . -- Anaheim Ducks captain and leading scorer Ryan Getzlaf has been scratched from Sunday nights game against the Vancouver Canucks because of an upper-body injury. [url=http://www.yeezy350salenz.com/]http://www.yeezy350salenz.com/[/url] .05 million next season unless Graham and the Saints subsequently agree on a long-term deal. The designation was released Monday after the deadline passed for NFL teams to use franchise or transition tags on players becoming free agents. [url=http://www.yeezy350salenz.com/]Cheap Yeezy 350 NZ For Sale[/url] . Jordan Lynch, the all-purpose Heisman Trophy finalist from Northern Illinois, failed to make it into that exclusive club. [url=http://www.yeezy350salenz.com/]Wholesale Yeezys NZ[/url] . Nathan MacKinnon, Jamie McGinn and Jan Hejda also scored for the Avalanche, who won despite being outshot 38-23. MacKinnons goal, also on the power play, came with just over a minute remaining. PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Penguins are blessed with not one but two goalies who have won the Stanley Cup in the last seven seasons. Not surprisingly, coach Mike Sullivan has declined to designate one or the other as the starter.As well as Matt Murray is playing, and as uncharacteristically poorly as Marc-Andre Fleury is playing, Sullivan might have no choice but to soon give a majority of the starts to Murray.For the second time in five days, Fleury was worked over Friday in a blowout loss. He gave up an opening-minute goal to Charlie Coyle of Minnesota -- one of Coyles two goals in the first period -- and the Wild went on to the second dominant win over the Penguins in as many games this season, a 6-2 decision that, at times, didnt look to be that close.Usually that doesnt faze us, Fleury said of giving up a quick, early goal. Were a good enough team to come back.Only this time they werent. While Sullivan suggested his teammates didnt give Fleury much help, its all but certain that Murray -- off to a 6-1 start this season -- will get the call when the Penguins (12-6-3) return home Saturday night to play the New Jersey Devils (10-6-4) at PPG Paints Arena.The Devils are off to a solid start, and are looking like a potential playoff team as the quarter pole of their season approaches despite a 5-4 overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Friday night. Detroit defenseman Mike Greene scored the game-winning goal with 1:42 remaining in overtime, beating goalie Cory Schneider, who made 28 saves.With both teams playing on back-to-back nights, its likely that the Devils will turn to backup goalie Keith Kincaid (2-1-1) on Saturday night.Well take the point and hope to be better (Saturday) for sure, said Devils coach John Hynes, who, like Sullivan, once coached the Penguins top farm club in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.Sullivan is parceling out goalie starts carefully, trying to make sure both Murray -- who won the Cup for him as a rookie last season -- and Fleury remain sharp and get regular work.But the more each goalie plays, the more disparate their statistics become. The Penguins have lost eight of the 14 starts made by Fleury (6--5-3), who has a 3.dddddddddddd.38 goals-against average and a .901 save percentage. Fleury has permitted three or more goals in six of his last seven starts.We werent a lot of help to him, captain Sidney Crosby said after the Wild scored on three of four power-play opportunities. We gave them some good really scoring chances. Not just your typical scoring chances but some really good looks. And we cant allow that to happen.Murray, by contrast, is 6-1 with a 1.57 goals-against average and a .945 save percentage. He gave up no more than two goals in each of his last four starts.The Penguins, however, have given up 11 goals in Fleurys last two starts, including a 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers on home ice Monday night, Sullivan wouldnt fault his goalie following a second successive loss to Minnesota, who also beat the Penguins 4-2 in Pittsburgh on Nov. 10.I thought we put him in a tough spot, Sullivan said of Fleury, who was in net for the Penguins Cup run in 2009. The goals they got, they got grade A scoring chances. The type of saves he had to make were high quality. So I think we put him in a lot of the circumstances.Still, Fleury said, Its frustrating to give up that many goals. There were a few I should have stopped.Sullivan seems more concerned with the overall unpredictable play of his entire team than he is any lack of steadiness by Fleury. The Penguins followed up that Monday night loss by beating up on the Rangers 6-1 Wednesday at Madison Square Garden, only to look unready to play against the Wild despite a Thanksgiving Day practice in Minnesota.Its hard for me to explain it, Sullivan said. If I could explain it, I could probably solve it. Its been something that is part of our game for the first 20 games.Two former Penguins players -- defenseman Ben Lovejoy and forward Beau Bennett -- will be with the Devils as the teams meet for the first time this season. Former Penguins general manager Ray Shero, who helped assemble that 2009 Penguins Cup team, now has the same job in New Jersey. 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