Waiting to Play Golf, U.S. Team Excels at Table Tennis MEDINAH, Ill. - Don't be fooled, Bubba Watson said Thursday with a twinkle in his eye. "The Ryder Cup is all about ping-pong," he said. Perhaps it's a sign that they need to start playing the matches, but the Americans' prowess at table tennis has become a major line of questioning in the pre-Ryder Cup interview sessions. Matt Kuchar is considered hands-down the best table tennis player, except, perhaps, in the eyes of Phil Mickelson. Both, by the way, brought their own paddles. "I think it's clear that Matt Kuchar is the best," Webb Simpson said. Phil Mickelson is not quite ready to admit it. I think he's in denial. Simpson added: "My claim to fame is I beat Phil at the Presidents Cup last year. And after I beat him, he said my serve was illegal. But then he beat me the next five times. In contrast to his go-for-broke style on the course, Watson is a defensive table tennis player. "He doesn't hit any winners or anything," Simpson said, "and once he starts hitting those defensive shots, I start laughing and he beats me." Watson said that was true. "I don't have a backhand, and everybody knows it on our team," he explained. But I have long arms, and I think I'm very fast, so I can get the paddle on the ball every time when we play doubles. Watson claimed to have partnered with Jason Dufner to beat Jeff Sluman, a vice captain, and Mickelson. "And Mickelson is still mad about it," Watson said. He hates any time I beat him because I'm just this goofy left-handed kid named Bubba. The trash talking is part of what makes table tennis such a good team-bonding activity, Kuchar said. "There is that ability to kind of go out and be boys and kind of feel like you're in the locker room while you're competing against each other," he said.