Pride, passion, pressure – get set for the

approach the passion and interest produced by this match. Europe does not come together like this in any other context. It is the only competition that pits one side of the Atlantic against the other.

When Jack Nicklaus suggested in the Seventies that the Great Britain and Ireland team be expanded to take in the whole continent just so America could be given a proper match, he could not have imagined what it would become.

It transcends the game, it crosses the boundaries. Every footballer will be watching, every cricketer, every rugby player. It is the ultimate shop window for golf on the world stage.

I remember going down to Walton Heath with my brother in 1981 when I was 18. That United States team famously contained 11 major winners. It was the second time we had played under the Europe flag but Seve Ballesteros had been banned after a row about him receiving appearance money in regular events, so we never really had a prayer. To be honest, there was not a great deal of interest.

I recall there being this small merchandise tent and hardly anybody went in there. The crowds were OK but the atmosphere was pretty muted. Back then, the biggest events were the Open and the Masters. Look at it now. You get twice as many media at the Ryder Cup as any of the majors.

It has turned into this mammoth. How and why? Simple, it is because Europe started winning. Credit should go to Tony Jacklin for bringing that side together from the rubble of that humbling defeat in ’81. He persuaded Seve to play and told the powers-that-be he would only do the job if the team were flown over by Concorde. Jacklin insisted on the best because he was being asked to be the best.

Europe came close in 1983 and won at The Belfry two years later, but to my mind the most significant was the victory in 1987 at Muirfield Village in Ohio. It was Nicklaus’s course and he was the US captain. Jacklin’s men prevailed at the ultimate American course with the ultimate American captain and the home crowd was stunned.

I made my debut in the 1991 competition at Kiawah Island and although we lost that week – by a point – the events of that notorious ‘War on the Shore’ week highlighted Europe’s main success. The US showed how much they suddenly cared about the Ryder Cup.

We continue to bat well above ourselves in competing with the might of America. Our golfing GDP is about 10 per cent of that of America. In golf sales, in golf played, in golf generally, America is 10 to one against us, and that is why we do a hell of a job simply to keep up with them in the way we do.

Defeat has kept them interested and, after eight defeats in the last 11 matches, they are now more interested than ever. To think, in 1977 Tom Weiskopf turned down his place on the US team in favour of a bear-hunting expedition to Alaska. Now it is one of the biggest honours in the sport and the revenue it produces is huge.

The European Tour would not be anything like it is without this finance. I recall taking to George O’grady, the Tour’s former chief executive, when I was captain in 2010, and he informed me how vital it was. He made sure that I knew how important a home win was that year at Celtic Manor, in terms of