The United States took their third straight loss to Europe in the 2014 Ryder Cup, and veteran Phil Mickelson questioned team captain Tom Watson's strategy for the tournament.

Mickelson said in the news conference following their 16½-11½ loss that he is unsure why the U.S. squad did not implement the same strategy that helped them win the 2008 Ryder Cup.

"So we were invested in the process. Unfortunately, we have strayed from a winning formula in 2008 for the last three Ryder Cups, and we need to consider maybe getting back to that formula that helped us play our best," Mickelson said via The New York Times.

Mickelson, who was surprisingly benched on Saturday, was referring the "pod" system, which was used by 2008 team captain Paul Azinger, the last captain to lead USA to a victory against their European counterparts.

Azinger divided to the team into four groups with three players each, who will then train and sleep together for a certain period to improve team chemistry.

"There were two things that allowed us to play our best, I think, that Paul Azinger did, and one was he got everybody invested in the process," Mickelson said via ESPN. "He got everybody invested in who they were going to play with, who the picks were going to be, who was going to be in their pod, who, when they would play, and they had a great leader for each pod."

When about Mickelson's comment about his strategy as team captain, Watson said that he has his own philosophy when it comes to managing a team, which, he said, is different from Azinger's strategy.

"I had a different philosophy as far as being a captain of this team," Watson said. "It takes 12 players to win. It's not pods. It's 12 players. And I felt -- yes, I did talk to the players, but my vice captains were very instrumental in making decisions as to whom to pair with. I had a different philosophy than Paul. I decided not to go that way."

With their loss this year, the U.S. squad has now lost in eight of the last 10 Ryder Cup. They will look to end their skid when they host Europe in 2016 at Hazeltine in Minnesota.

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