WHILE the pre-tournament talk was largely confined to a post-Ryder Cup inquest into Nick Faldo’s captaincy and who should take over from him at Celtic Manor in 2010, rookie Graeme McDowell flew into Birmingham with some satisfaction after picking up two-and-a-half points from his four matches.

The Portrush golfer started using the consultancy services at StrokeAverage.com in 2006 after failing to earn a spot in the European team for the K Club.

Such was his dismay at missing out on playing against the Americans in front of his native Irish fans, he changed his coach, his clubs and started to use the services of StrokeAverage.com to analyse his golf and performance on Tour.

Two years later and the 29-year-old has collected two more European titles to the two he won in his first two years as a golf pro, and he is one of the few golfers who appeared at Valhalla to emerge with only plus points on his CV.

And this week, the Ulsterman’s focus was clearly on clawing his way further up the world rankings and the European Order of Merit, with another strong showing at The Belfry, which staged four Ryder Cups between 1985 and 2002.

“The Ryder Cup is something we work very hard for and I was never really going to be able to focus on much else,” said the golfer known as GMac.

“Now it's out of the way I have to look towards the end of the season.

“The atmosphere was electric, like nothing I've ever experienced before. You have 12 guys pulling for each other chasing one unique goal.

“As soon as the golf started the weekend was a bit of a blur. I remember sitting at the closing ceremony thinking it was the fastest three days of my life.

“I'm sure it will be a bit of a comedown this week, but it's a tournament I wanted to play and in a funny way not winning the Ryder Cup will probably make it easier to put it behind and move on.

“I want to put a shine on what's been a really good season and finish on a high note.

"I was very satisfied personally. - the way I handled the pressure. The standard of golf blew me away. Myself and Padraig I think we were 10 under par and got beat," he added referring to his Friday fourball against ??? and ????.

"There's no doubt I'll take the positives out of last week and hopefully it will stand by me on a Sunday afternoon somewhere in the future, hopefully in a major.

"I really got to ask a lot of questions of myself and I felt like I answered them."

While the sniping started over Nick Faldo’s possible mistakes in his Friday morning pairings and the Sunday singles order when Europe were facing a two-point deficit, needing seven points out of 12 available to keep the trophy through a tie, Graeme McDowell singled out vice-captain Jose Maria Olazabal as the fulcrum of the locker room.

Graeme McDowell revealed: “He was just talking about how much he loved to be sitting there as one of the 12, how he had seen us come up through the ranks and how he has 12 great champions sitting in front of him.

"To have a guy like that sort of really trying to fire you up, it was pretty cool."

And while not joining in the questioning of Nick Faldo’s decisions – led unsurprisingly given their past differences by Colin Montgomerie – Graeme McDowell did reveal: "There were certainly some good chats.

“Faldo was well prepared. He had done his homework and he really gave us some good stuff to work with as well.

“Should he come in for criticism? No, not at all. If the guy wins he's a hero and if he loses he's the villain. We made decisions as a team and I think every player down the last man thought he was a good captain.

“It was a privilege to play under him

Monty, criticized by Nick Faldo during his seven-year reign as European number one for not moving to America in search of the golf Major win that has eluded him throughout his career, said in his press conference: “The line-up of the singles was very important being 9-7 down.

“Very important. It had to be absolutely bang-on right.”

"If they had been playing higher up they absolutely would have been included in the shake-up of what happened," said the Scot, forced to be a self-confessed armchair critic having missed out on a wildcard pick, which meant him missing a Ryder Cup for the first time since the 14-14 tie at The Belfry, back in 1989.

Lee Westwood is the only other member of the defeated European team teeing it up at The Belfry this week, after Mansfield’s Oliver Wilson withdraw citing fatigue.

Whether Lee Westwood would have pulled out this week if he had not been defending champion is debatable, but the 35-year-old, who works with StrokeAverage.com admitted he was “shattered,” after only arriving at the golf course on Wednesday, after Monday’s flight home from Kentucky.

When asked how he felt, Lee said: “Shattered, quite flat. But it helps I'm defending champion, it helps I like the golf course, it helps I'm playing an hour from where I live.

"And you've got the goal of trying to win the Order of Merit in my sights as well."

Lee Westwood is currently in fourth place, but a victory this week would leave him around £80,000 behind Padraig Harrington who has won both The Open and USPGA this year.

Two more StrokeAverage.com clients with fond memories of The Belfry were also in the field – and Paul McGinley has fonder memories than most after holing the winning putt there for Sam Torrance’s team six years ago last week.

The Irish pair will be hoping to make a strong showing in the West Midlands, as will fellow StrokeAverage.com clients David Howell and Nick Dougherty.

The latter is preparing to defend his Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews next week, and both golfers have enjoyed top 15 performances at The Belfry in recent years.

Golf article end.