Tom Watson was at fault for the USA's Ryder Cup defeat - he got his tactics all wrong, says Phil Mickelson

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Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Jamie Donaldson played starring, stirring roles as Europe’s golfers romped to an eighth Ryder Cup victory in the last 10 contests.

The USA, by contrast, were publicly melting down as recriminations began to fly over the reasons for their latest dismal failure.

Europe’s overnight lead of 10-6 was extended to a final tally of 16½-11½, with McIlroy thrashing Rickie Fowler to put Europe’s first point of the day on the board and McDowell coming from three down against Jordan Spieth for the second.

Tom Watson has seen his leadership of the US team at the Ryder Cup criticised by one of his players

Phil Mickelson (centre) is a veteran of 10 Ryder Cups and laid into the way his captain ran things

VIDEO Donaldson hits Ryder Cup winner

It was Welshman Jamie Donaldson who delivered the winning point, and he did so in sensational fashion by hitting his approach to the 15th within a foot of the hole.

'I can’t really put words to it. It is unbelievable' said the 38-year-old, moments after his clincher had prompted a handshake on the fairway between Europe’s captain Paul McGinley and his opposite number Tom Watson.

While McGinley was quickly at the heart of ecstatic European celebrations and receiving lavish praise from his players, Watson was being derided by senior members of his own team.

In one of the more extraordinary sporting press conferences, Phil Mickelson outlined in detail how the USA had failed to prepare for any Ryder Cup in a suitable fashion since they last won, at Valhalla in 2008.

The captain then was Paul Azinger, who Mickelson said had got his team 'invested in the process' and 'had a game plan'.

The implication was Watson had done neither.

Watson gestures to the crowd at the closing ceremony as Paul McGinley watches on from the sidelines

Watson was criticised by not reverting to the successful formula used in 2008's victory

Unconfirmed reports suggested another member of the USA staff had been overheard talking about Watson in derogatory terms and questioning his selections. Both Mickelson and Keegan Bradley were dropped for the entirety of Saturday and Bradley admitted: ‘It was a bummer.’

Mickelson: 'There were two things that allowed us to play our best that Paul Azinger did: one was he got everybody invested in the process.

'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, when they would play, and they had a great leader for each pod.

'We hung out together and we were all invested in each other's play. We were invested in picking Hunter (Mahan) that week, we were invested in the process.

'The other thing that Paul did really well was he had a great game plan for us; how we were going to go about doing this, how we were going to go about playing together, if so-and-so is playing well, if so-and-so is not playing well - we had a real game plan.

'Those two things helped us bring out our best golf. We use that same process in the Presidents Cup and we do really well.

Mickelson wanted the tactics to be more along the lines of Paul Azinger's pod system

Tom Watson, Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler, Jim Furyk and Zack Johnson line up during the presentations

e 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 was asked whether he thought his comments were disloyal to Watson.

'Oh, I'm sorry you're taking it that way. I'm just talking about what Paul Azinger did to help us play our best,' was his response.

'You asked me what I thought we should do to bring our best golf out and I'd go back to when we played our best golf and try to replicate that formula.' 

As the USA were in disarray, a European party at Gleneagles was getting under way.

‘I was just so up for it, more so than I was in the two majors I won this year,’ McIlroy said.

‘There was no option other than to win. I played my best golf.’ 

It was a big contrast in reception at the end of the weekend as Watson took flak and Paul McGinley celebrated