John Huggan is the European correspondent for both Golf Digest and Golf World magazines, and his thoughts on the just-concluded Ryder Cup matches addresses the rather embarrassing question of whether the U.S. team has fallen so far behind the European squad that the U.S. should consider making their team “the Americas” team:

[O]ne has to wonder what Jack Nicklaus was thinking as he surveyed from afar the carnage that was America’s Team. Was he musing the possibility of the hapless US side being bolstered by the likes of Canada’s Mike Weir, Angel Cabrera of Argentina and Columbian Camilio Villegas in a newly constituted ‘Americas’ team? To even suggest such a thing can no longer be dismissed as frivolous or mere mischief making. After two successive nine-point shellackings that hardly bode well for the new world’s prospects at Valhalla two years hence, it is a question that brings with it a growing legitimacy.

Then, Huggan takes off on Phil Mickelson, he of the abysmal 1-7-1 record in the past two Ryder Cup matches:

The question is simple: Is he willing to take golf even remotely seriously after the PGA Championship in August? If not, Mickelson should forfeit his place in all future US sides. That he should pitch up in Ireland not having played competitively for a month was a disgrace, an insult to his teammates and indicative of his less than enthusiastic approach to representing his country in golf’s most compelling event. Instead of being on the course these past few days, the 36-year old Californian should have taken the advice offered by a wonderfully ‘Irish’ sign at the K Club: “Lost people should go to the information centre in the tented village.”

Finally, Huggan can’t resist relishing in the misfortune of golf’s most visible bodyguard . . er, I mean, . . caddie, Steve Williams, who carries Tiger Woods’ bag:

Finally, on a personal note, your correspondent is sure he is hardly alone in taking an enormous amount of pleasure from the delicious last day moment that saw Woods’ caddie, the despicable Steve Williams, slip on a rock left of the 7th green and drop his boss’s 9-iron into the drink. The only pity was that the endlessly boorish New Zealander did not do likewise.
That would have been the perfect end to a memorable week. Well done Darren [Clarke]. Well done Ireland. Get a grip America.

Meanwhile, this GolfonLine piece indicates that the off-air comments of NBC golf analyst Johnny Miller were inadvertantly picked up in the media center and in the U.S. team locker room, and apparently those comments were doozies:

While chatting off-air with his colleagues, Miller said Tiger Woods was “playing like crap” and that he hit one shot like a “cripple.”
Only Miller wasn’t entirely off the air.
Unbeknownst to the NBC crew, its off-air banter had actually been piped into the U.S. team’s locker room (as well as the media center).
While expressing continued exasperation with the U.S. team’s performance, Miller also referred to Scott Verplank as a lead weight and said that U.S. Captain Tom Lehman should have benched Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in the afternoon’s foursome matches, but that he didn’t because Lehman was afraid to “take the heat” he would face for shelving the world’s No. 1 and 3 ranked players.
The NBC team learned about the locker room feed when David Toms alerted on-course reporter Mark Rolfing. Rolfing immediately told his colleagues, and an awkward silence ensued. Miller, seemingly unfazed, then sent greetings to the U.S. team.
Within minutes, the NBC feed to the media center went silent.

Finally, Golf World’s Brett Avery gives out this report card on the American Ryder Cup team members’ performance, and it is not a pretty picture. My favorite is the comment on Chris DiMarco (0-3-1):

Grade: F. Go to the chalkboard and write 100 times: “I am the no. 15 player in the world and should have played like it.” And when you’re done, hand the chalk to Mickelson.