In an interview with Reuters ahead of this weekend’s SAS Championship, Colin Montgomerie said he thought Phil Mickelson should have bowed out of the Ryder Cup, given his poor late-season form.

“Phil, you have to ask questions about his form coming into it,” Montgomerie said in a report filed by Andrew Both. “I remember… Sandy Lyle in 1989 when Tony Jacklin picked him and Sandy said, ‘I’m not really playing very well, please (pick) somebody else Tony’.”

The 48-year old Mickelson – not the Tour’s most accurate driver, struggled badly (0-3) in Paris, especially off the tee, where Le Golf National’s tight fairways and heavy rough gobbled up many of his balls.

“Possibly that would have been the thing to do for Phil, knowing the course set-up as well,” continued Montgomerie. “Phil needs a more wide open course, as he’s said himself. The course should have been known by the captain and the players.”

Mickelson’s 2017-18 campaign started strongly, highlighted by a win at the WGC-Mexico Championship in March. But he played poorly the rest of the season, and only once finished inside the top 10 (T5, Wells Fargo). In the four majors, he failed to post even a top 20.

At the Safeway Open last week, Mickelson called Le Golf National a waste of his time.

“I’m not going to play tournaments with rough like that anymore,” Mickelson said. “It’s a waste of my time.”

The five-time major winner went on to say that he will be scaling back his schedule in 2019, and will only enter tournaments he enjoys playing.