Lee Westwood has known riotous celebrations for Ryder Cup wins in his eight previous occasions on Team Europe, but he’ll be sober and soaking it all in if Gleneagles provides another victory.
Westwood is an athlete these days he lost 23lb in his three weeks off with double gym sessions prior to this week’s ISPS Handa Wales Open and is off the booze as well. It works, as anyone who saw nearly sprint up the steep hill in front of the Celtic Manor clubhouse without breathing hard will testify.
Not even another European win the seventh he’ll have been part of will tempt him to have more than a sip of the champagne that might be sprayed around the team room.
“I can’t remember any of them,” he joked when asked about Europe’s winning parties. “Detroit (2004) was good. Valderrama (1997) was great, at that time, I was 24 years old and am sat in a room with Langer, Ballesteros, Faldo – all my heroes – and they are all jumping about like schoolboys because we had won.
“That was my first experience. You don’t really know how to behave and what is going on, but it didn’t take me long to get into it!
“I was a veteran for my third one at the Belfry (2002), so I was taking charge by then. But not if we win this time, water for me.”
Relying on a wildcard this time, and thought fortunate by some to have got Paul McGinley’s final pick, it might be Westwood’s ninth and final time at Gleneagles.
“I don’t appreciate it any more, because I’ve always appreciated playing in the Ryder Cup,” he said. “It’s a privileged experience to go through. And the more you play in them, the more you take it all in and enjoy it more.
“The first couple of times you play it all goes past you in a blur. But when it gets to six, seven, eight times, you can slow down and take it all in.”
And as a member of the team throughout Europe’s period of domination, there are many cherished memories.
“I’ve got great memories from all of them going back to Valderrama, a great shot I hit into 17 there about six feet playing with Nick (Faldo) against Tiger and Mark O’Meara,” he recalled. “That green was surrounded by crowds.
“With Darren on the first tee at the K Club, obviously. It wasn’t a great moment because of the situation, but it was a very emotional moment that I’ll always remember.”
This time Westwood is a senior man, almost another vice-captain for Paul McGinley, a player he “grew up on the tour with”. Not surprisingly, Westwood thinks McGinley is getting everything right in preparation.
“I’ve been very impressed,” he said. “Paul kept me informed all the way, he let me know where I stood without lumping any pressure on me.
“He has a good backroom team. One of the things which let Nick (Faldo) down in 2008 was that he didn’t have enough vice-captains. I like to see someone with each match so they can relay back to the captain and he has more of an idea of how people are doing.
“It’s great that he’s got Jose Maria Olazabal and Niguel Angel Jimenez as well. He’s got a couple of past captains and Des (Smyth) in there whose opinion he obviously respects.
“The buck stops with Paul but he will have all the right information from people who’ve been through it.”
Westwood will also play a mentor role himself, as he has done in the last two Ryder Cups.
“We’ve discussed the possibility of me being paired with the rookies, discussed lots of pairings, ones that are very different,” he said.
“I think that’s what the experienced players have to do, that’s why we’re there. Nick helped me in 1997, told me to play aggressively, he’d be there if I messed up.
“I said the same to Martin Kaymer at Celtic Manor and Nicolas Colsaerts last time. It certainly worked with Nicolas, he got right into it.”
Still, Westwood expects to see things he never thought he’d see, like he did on that amazing Sunday at Medinah.
“It was about the point when Justin (Rose) had turned around his game with Phil (Mickelson),” he recounted.
“My match with Matt Kuchar was in the balance. I think I was walking to the 12th tee and Jose Maria came over and I said: ‘I reckon we can win this.’
“And he looked at me and he had tears in his eyes. I thought: ‘Oh Christ, that is just what I need to see right now!’
“That was when I thought I need to put my foot down and try to get the momentum and I did. I won the 12th and 13th, then the 15th to go three up with three to play. It was nice to turn it on when I needed to.”
Kuchar famously made him a hole a tiny putt to close it out on the 16th, but Westwood laughed at the time and still does now.
“I would have made me hole it,” he said. “It was one of the putts leading up to winning. It was almost desperation time at that stage because the momentum had completely left their team and was fully with ours.
“You have to leave every opportunity to happen, don’t you?”