Unashamed green tinge to gala dinner a coup for Ireland
The gala Ryder Cup dinner, attended by both teams, their wives and 700 guests, was a dream captive audience and didn't Bord Fáilte, sponsors of the night, milk the occasion.
The walls were covered by a mural more than 100 yards in circumference and 30 feet high depicting Irish beauty spots while the menu and entertainment programme had an unashamedly green tinge to them.
"We were invited by the European Tour to lend an Irish theme to the occasion, and bearing 2006 and The K-Club in mind, we were very happy to do so," explained Damien Ryan, Bord Fáilte's director of golf. "We are very proud of how it turned out and every Irish person has said how proud they were to be Irish on such a great night."
As captain of the visiting team, Curtis Strange was first on the podium to introduce his team. Then it was the turn of his European counterpart Sam Torrance, and he immediately put his side one up by calling on the players AND their partners to salute their fellow guests. Strange limply admitted: "I did what I thought was right."
Resounding applause rang through the auditorium when Torrance called on Padraig and Caroline Harrington and Paul and Alison McGinley, causing him to comment: "Since we're in Ireland, it's only right they should get the biggest cheer."
How right he was. It might have been in the English midlands, but as far as advertising coups go, this was straight out of Madison Avenue.
Take the menu for instance. Starters of Dublin Bay prawn and baby asparagus salad with salmon three style, lemon oil and balsamic dressing.
Main course, Irish beef fillets on ham hock with colcannon potato cakes (Bord Bia logo alongside), glazed root vegetables and Guinness gravy.
Dessert was marbled white chocolate and coffee truffle topped with almond brittle, summer fruits served with Irish whiskey custard.
Afterwards a selection of award winning authentic Irish Cheeses was on offer, along with specially selected hand made Irish chocolates.
No sooner had the meal ended when on to the stage came a troupe from Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance the performance was nothing short of stunning and had the audience in raptures.
Even American guests, including the whole of Curtis Strange's team who might have been unfamiliar with the show, burst into spontaneous applause at the conclusion.
"It was a beautiful evening, I think everybody thoroughly enjoyed themselves and the Lord of the Dance was quite unique, I enjoyed that," said Strange.
It was a tough act to follow and Ronan Keating coped manfully in the circumstances. A few players and their wives got up to dance but were quickly whisked away and were out of the hall and on their way back to The Belfry by 9.55pm.
Tiger Woods, worried that the occasion might upset his routine, needn't have worried. Not that he stayed in his bed for all that long because he was out on the golf course at 6.45 am yesterday, along with Mark Calcavecchia, thereby disappointing the many thousands who had paid £40 to see the entire American team practice at their scheduled time of 9am.
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