For most people in this country, it has always been more a curiosity than a must-see, loved only by a group the New York Times once described as "tiny in number but mighty in per capita income". The weekend Bernhard Langer led his team to glory, four times as many Americans watched the early season NFL clash between the Indianapolis Colts and the Tennessee Titans. If that's hardly a startling revelation, the golf viewership was also dwarfed by NASCAR's Sylvania 300 motor race, and the college grid-iron clash between Florida and Tennessee on the Saturday. Twelve days from now, it will be more of the same. While many Europeans will obsess over every putt in Kildare, the sporting allegiances of most Americans will be concentrated elsewhere.

None of this should be the least bit surprising. Apart from a spike in ratings in 1999, the Ryder Cup audience here has been steadily dwindling over the past 15 years. Even when America performed heroically that Sunday in Boston, the numbers weren't impressive. Just eight million watched the improbable and thrilling comeback at Brookline, an event that came replete with a moving Alamo storyline courtesy of then Texas Governor George W Bush.

If a similar number were to get hooked this time around, NBC would be delighted. Such an unlikely bonanza would still not explain the disparity between the reality of the American viewership and the propaganda continuing to emanate from the Department of Arts, Tourism and Sport.

"It is an enormous honour for Irelandf it allows us to present a new Ireland to a worldwide audience already familiar with our proud culture, heritage and rich traditions, " said Minister for Arts, Tourism and Sport John O'Donoghue. "It is a golden opportunity to reach one billion television viewers in 150 countries".

Appropriately enough given the ludicrous numbers he casually dropped, O'Donoghue gave that speech a couple of miles from the Blarney Stone earlier this summer. At the opening of the Cork town's new John Daly-designed golf resort, he repeated the by now tiresome and still no nearer true mantra that up to one billion might watch the event. At best, fuzzy maths, at worst, just plain wishful thinking. Recent history shows no matter what drama or fireworks ensue, nowhere near 10 million people in one of the participating continents will care enough to sit down and watch any of it. It's a long road from there to one billion.

For the duration of the competition, the Ryder Cup will be the fourth or fifth item on the American sports news bulletins. Whether it's radio or television, there will be baseball previews and scores to be attended to, NFL injury updates and reports, a sprinkling of college football items, and then, unless there's some pressing NASCAR business, something about the clash of the continents. This is not some conspiracy by the American media either.

They are simply affording the event the place it already holds in the national consciousness. It is a marginally interesting occasion to be dealt with after the staple sports. Not a hot topic at most water-coolers on Monday morning.

The five- to eight-hour time difference this time around makes the competition an even trickier proposition than 2004 for the US audience. Play tees off on Friday at a time when the average American golfer is in bed and ends when he or she is most likely still trapped in an office. Bad and all as this is, it's less of a conundrum than Saturday and Sunday. Those are mornings when American golfers usually, eh, golf. In those parts of this country where weekend teetimes are prized possessions, most fans will be reluctant to give up their own game to watch Tiger Woods try to repair the one gaping hole in his CV.

Against this background, the prevailing wisdom that hosting the Ryder Cup will persuade golfers from Seattle to South Carolina to travel to Ireland is misguided too. The hardcore viewers who will be watching are the ones for whom a trip to Ballybunion or Portmarnock is already on their to-do list.

Glimpsing Tom Lehman in a golf buggy pumping his fist in the rain won't be necessary to convince them of the merits of visiting Ireland. They read the golf magazines. They watch the golf channel.

They already know what the country has to offer in terms of the sport. It will be a classic case of preaching to the converted.

Had the government wanted to attract more tourist dollars they might have been better advised using some of the 16 million they spent securing the Ryder Cup advertising the national charms on television during a NASCAR race or a college football game. Sports that Americans are actually passionate about.

dhannigan@tribune. ie