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Phil Mickelson should have withdrawn his name from Ryder Cup consideration rather than taking part in a losing effort at Le Golf National last month, Colin Montgomerie said.

Montgomerie, in speaking with Reuters prior to this weekend’s SAS Championship, didn’t feel that Mickelson’s form or style of play warranted a captain’s pick. Rather than putting the blame on U.S. captain Jim Furyk, Montgomerie believes Mickelson should have made the decision for Furyk and took his name out of the hat like Sandy Lyle did in 1989, when he told European captain Tony Jacklin that he was not fit to compete.

Jacklin ended up picking Bernhard Langer, Christy O’Connor Jr. and Howard Clark as his three captain’s picks. The trio combined to earn three points as Europe retained the Cup with a 14-14 tie.

This year, Mickelson, 48, went 0-3 in a dismal performance in Paris.

“Phil, you have to ask questions about his form coming into it,” Montgomerie said. “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.

“Possibly that would have been the thing to do for Phil, knowing the course set-up as well. 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 admitted last week at the Safeway Open that Le Golf National did not suit his game. But he didn’t go as far as to say he didn’t deserve a pick, despite not posting a top-5 finish since the Wells Fargo in May.

“I’m not going to play tournaments with rough like that anymore,” Mickelson said. “It’s a waste of my time. I’m going to play courses that are playable and that I can play aggressive, attacking, make a lot of birdies, (the) style of golf I like to play.”

Montgomerie, a victorious Ryder Cup captain in 2010 and with a 20-9-7 career record in the biennial event, also wonders if Mickelson, who has now played in 12 Ryder Cups (winning just three of them), and 42-year-old Tiger Woods, who went 0-4 in Paris, will be called on again to represent the U.S. in the Ryder Cup.

“Have Woods and Mickelson played their last Ryder Cups? We’ll see,” Montgomerie said. “Everything has to come to an end.”