Would Danny Willett have done a better job?

Such is the enormity of the occasion that for a number of weeks now Darren Clarke would have been silently praying he would only have to play two rookies in the opening foursomes series of matches in the 41st Ryder Cup.

Why? Because Clarke knows foursomes golf is by far the most difficult of all of the three disciplines played this week. It offers no respite to a team if one player is off-form or nervous, so while outwardly confident in the ability of all of his players, it was not too surprising to see Clarke eventually selected the proven partnerships of Stenson/Rose and Garcia/Kaymer, while he gambled more in hope than anything else with the selections of McIlroy/Sullivan and Westwood/Pieters.

For 10-time Ryder Cupper Westwood, this is by now a very familiar role, having already helped the likes of Kaymer, Jamie Donaldson and Nicolas Colsaerts settle into the European Team before shepherding them around the course on the morning of their Ryder Cup debuts As a Ryder Cup partner, who has been there and done all of that before, Westwood is credited continuously for his leadership and his calming influence both on the course and in the team room but as we saw in yesterday’s round he can not perform miracles, especially with a rookie like Pieters who was quite simply too intimidated to play his own game.