Thursday 9 October 2014 22:26, UK
Colin Montgomerie believes the United States should make changing their Ryder Cup qualification criteria a higher priority than their choice of captain.
Tom Watson was widely criticised in the US media for his captaincy methods, decisions and player-management during the defeat to Europe at Gleneagles.
The American captain also came under fire from Phil Mickelson at the post-tournament press-conference, where the left-hander - left out by Watson for the entire second day - championed the leadership of Paul Azinger in the last US Ryder Cup win at Valhalla in 2008.
But Watson was unable to call upon the likes of Chris Kirk and FedExCup champion Billy Horschel, who both found a rich vein of form after the qualifying period had ended and Watson had unveiled Hunter Mahan, Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson as his three captain's picks.
Montgomerie, who skippered Europe to victory at Celtic Manor in 2010, feels the PGA of America should now focus more on altering their qualifying system rather than who will captain the team at Hazeltine in two years' time.
"Being a European, we're very happy with what we tend to do," Montgomerie said. "But having lost eight out of the last 10 Ryder Cups, you would feel the PGA of America would have to change things somehow.
"Is it a two-year process, a one-year process, is it 12 picks for the captain, is it the (top) 12 in the world rankings?"
The Scot, who is a member of the five-man European Tour panel that will decide on Europe's captain for the 2016 Ryder Cup, also hit out at Mickelson for his poorly-disguised criticism of Watson in front of the world's media.
"The timing of what he said really was wrong," said Montgomerie, who insisted the situation for both teams could have been vastly different had Graeme McDowell not snatched victory over Hunter Mahan in the deciding match in Wales four years ago.
He added: "You talk about this great European template all you like (but) I never saw it when I was captain. If it wasn't for McDowell's victory, we might have been looking for America's template.
"We happen to have putted better than the American team over the last few Ryder Cups and that's why we've won. Why we have done that, I'm not sure.
"But eight European wins out of the last 10 is beyond a coincidence so there must be something that's either very, very good with us or not so with the American set-up."
