Faldo's "Useless" Jab Stirs Euros To Sergio's Defense!

Team Europe rallied around Sergio Garcia late Friday after former captain Nick Faldo threw in a jab at his  2008 Ryder Cup team member, calling the Spaniard "useless" with a "bad attitude" (you can hear the clip and judge the context in ByTheMinuteGolf's Vine below).

Jason Sobel with Sergio's reaction ("unfortunate" and "I'm not going to put myself down to his level") and the zinger of a reply from Graeme McDowell.

“You've got one of the best Ryder Cup pairings of all time being sat down on a Saturday morning of a Ryder Cup that we go on to lose,” McDowell said pointedly. “I'd say Sergio was fairly useless that afternoon, yeah, because he wasn't able to play. So, yeah, I agree.”

Carl Markham in the Daily Mail wrote:

Some of the senior players alongside Garcia in the press conference looked less than impressed the upbeat mood of how Europe finished the day - with a 5-3 lead - had been brought down a notch by the issue.

The video clip is WELL worth watching if you missed it. GMac and Sir Nick will not be litigating anytime soon! I mean, exchanging Christmas cards.

Ryan Herrington noted that it was Rory who had to lighten a suddenly tense press room mood.

McIlroy, sitting next to Garcia on the podium, attempted to lighten the suddenly icy mood.

"Don't worry," he said turning to Garcia. "You're not useless."

As if Team USA didn't have enough on its plate, now they have to deal with a team uniting behind Sergio and loving to hate Nick Faldo. The excerpt of the press room exchange was posted by Stephanie Wei here. The full transcript is here.

The sound (unmute option in upper left corner):