The presentation went ahead as planned.
On another day, Watson might have come up with a suitably cryptic quip. With things the way they were, he brushed off the gift, saying it meant nothing. He was only interested in winning the genuine article.
A day earlier, Phil Mickelson had stood up for Watson, even to the point of suggesting that he had done the right thing in leaving him out of the Friday foursomes. “Maybe there are younger pups who can do better than me,” he had suggested, sportingly.
But after Watson had left him on the side-lines throughout Saturday, this senior player was altogether less well-disposed towards the 65-year-old. He did his bit to try and raise his teammates' spirits on Saturday night but Watson, who had his back to him, was by all accounts still bristling.
It was in the immediate wake of the team’s subsequent 16 ½ - 11 ½ defeat that Mickelson let rip.
Pages
Click here to see the published article.
