EXACTLY a week before the Ryder Cup was won, Ian Woosnam and his two vice-captains, Des Smyth and Peter Baker, were watching rehearsals for the opening ceremony at the K Club.

Everything that needed to be in place was in place, the course looked a picture and the conditions were perfect. It was mentioned that the only thing that could go wrong was that if the place was hit by a hurricane. Smyth thought about the remark for a moment. "We don't get hurricanes in Ireland, " he said.

Woosnam and his assistants might have hoped against hope for the joyous celebrations that eventually accompanied Europe's crushing victory but, on that Sunday afternoon, they couldn't have known how the matches would pan out, and they couldn't have known that the weather forecast was to be their only mistake of the week.

At that time, Hurricane Gordon was already tracking eastwards towards the Azores and its remnants would eventually lead to dangerously high winds tearing through the K Club on the Wednesday. The storm also brought so much heavy rain that at one stage there was speculation that the Ryder Cup might not start or finish on schedule.

Des Smyth knew he would be operating mostly in the shadows. He was there to help Woosnam help the players, there to offer his tuppence worth when necessary. If, unlike the captain, he would never be held accountable for success or failure, he still saw himself as an important part of the team.

The USA might have been dominant, and the idiotic behaviour of Ken Brown and Mark James might have undermined whatever chance the Europeans had, but playing in the Ryder Cup for the first time in 1979 had meant a lot to Smyth. And if, at the time, the event was only a hillock on the sporting landscape, he was hugely proud to have qualified again two years later.

While he had left the circuit to forge a successful second career on the Champions Tour in America, he had been European Tour to his fingertips, and had become the oldest player to win a tour event when he claimed victory at the Madeira Island Open at the age of 48.

By offering him the job as a vice-captain, Woosnam had, in more ways than one, invited Smyth to come home.

"It was a such a great experience to be involved with players of that calibre again.

Fred Daly was the first Irish player to play in the matches in 1947, and here we were nearly 60 years later at the first Ryder Cup in our own country. I had this fear that after all the build-up, we'd lose the Ryder Cup in Ireland, and I really didn't want to lose it. When it was all over, I was a genuinely proud Irishman."

With the players yet to arrive at the K Club, Woosnam, Smyth and Baker discussed the week ahead over dinner that Sunday evening.

It was agreed that no pairings would be set in stone, and that, unlike the Americans whose advance plan was to play Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk, and Phil Mickelson and Chris DiMarco together, much would depend on how the practice sessions went.

There was some debate about what role Darren Clarke would play, but at that stage there was possibly more apprehension about Paul McGinley's form, and Smyth was detailed to watch him in practice on the Tuesday.

"We did have a little worry about Paul initially, and we had to be clear in our minds that he was playing the type of game we were looking for. I followed his match on that first practice day and I talked to him, and it was obvious he was hitting the ball well. He was in control of his game and he looked comfortable out there."

With all the players performing so well in practice, the only doubt in Woosnam's mind was that they might have peaked too early.

"Woosie told them that if they played as well as that once the matches started, they'd win, " says Smyth, "and by the Thursday morning, they all knew that everyone would be involved before the singles. There was a lot of confidence there."

But behind the confidence, there was also the same sort of spirit and resolve that had carried Europe through two years previously at Oakland Hills. An impromptu speech by Jose Maria Olazabal during one of the team meetings saw to it that there would be no complacency.

"We were in our team room going over details of the week when Olazabal stood up unannounced, and started to speak, " Smyth recalls. "He hadn't asked Woosie for special permission or anything like that, he just said how much it had meant to him to have made the team at that stage in his career, and that even though he had won major championships, it was the highlight of his career to be among such great players on the best Ryder Cup team ever.

"He said to Woosnam, 'You play me with whoever and whenever you like.' So here was a two-time Masters champion, one of the great European players, saying just what this Ryder Cup meant to him. It was a hairs-onthe-back-of-the-neck moment, and when he sat down you could see the sort of impression it made on the rest of the players."

Both the confidence and the feelgood flowed into the opening day. Initially, by leaving out Luke Donald - then the number 10 ranked player in the world - and by including Clarke in the Friday morning fourballs, it seemed that Woosnam had taken a gamble.

"With the course so wet, it was clear that length was going to be a factor, and so we went for the likes of Paul Casey and Robert Karlsson, " says Smyth. "Had the conditions been faster, Donald would have almost certainly played five games. As for Darren, it wasn't a gamble because he was playing so well. We had checked him out, he was ready for it, and it was obvious that if he was going to play he'd be with Lee Westwood. In a sense, the hardest part for Darren was everything that went on outside the ropes. Once he was playing, he probably felt that bit more comfortable."

With Europe gaining an early advantage, it just happened that every one of the team had played by the end of the first day. Woosnam, Smyth, Baker and Sandy Lyle would meet somewhere on the course before the pairings had to be handed in, and for about 15 minutes simply forget about the matches that were going on around them.

"Once we'd put the pairings down on paper, the most important question we'd ask ourselves was if the four guys on the sidelines could strengthen what we had. And then we might make a few changes here and there. We knew who certain players didn't want to play with, and I won't name names because that's against the rules as far as I'm concerned.

These guys depend on us to be loyal to them, and anyway, most of the time you're splitting hairs because you're dealing with quality players."

In contrast to Woosnam's flexibility regarding his pairings, Smyth was, and still is, surprised by Tom Lehman's reluctance to experiment going into the second day. He wonders why the Mickelson-DiMarco partnership wasn't dissolved earlier, and why Woods wasn't given more of a lead role.

"Put Tiger with Jim Furyk, and there might be a tendency for him to sit back because he knows Jim's so good, but put him with someone inexperienced, and Tiger's going to take the lead. I couldn't fathom why he wasn't put with maybe JJ Henry or Brett Wetterich who are both long hitters and who were both making a lot of birdies.

"There was huge pressure on Mickelson and DiMarco to win and neither delivered, so you'd have to wonder what effect that had on the rest of their players.

At the outset, Donald was definitely going to play five games, and we changed that.

I'm not sure if the American plan was flexible enough."

Whereas in 2004 Bernhard Langer had been quite rigid about how the players were to tackle certain holes at Oakland Hills, Woosnam took a more hands-off approach. On one occasion during the opening day, the captain thought the players were underestimating the breeze on the difficult seventh hole and he advised Karlsson to take one club more with his approach. After the Swede airmailed the green, Woosnam decided he had better back off.

"There was so much pressure that once the players came off the course, Woosie wanted them to relax, " says Smyth. "If they wanted a glass of wine or a pint, we had a bar next door to the team room. But actually between Wednesday and the Sunday night, there was hardly a drink in sight. Woosie would have a couple of pints, and I'd have a pint, but that was about it really."

On occasions, there was consultation with some of the senior players and one or two caddies, but holding a four-point lead at the end of the second day, there wasn't much debate over who would lead Europe in the singles.

Smyth remembers Woosnam checking with Colin Montgomerie if he wanted to go out at the top of the order, and the answer was predictable.

"We put a few guys down the order who we thought would enjoy the pressure if things went against us, but there was never any doubt that Montgomerie would lead off. We expected that Woods would be against him, and we couldn't understand why he wasn't at number one. It would've been huge for them if he had taken out Monty, think of the momentum it would've given them."

In the end, Woods's win over Karlsson at number four couldn't prevent another landslide Europe victory. The Americans might have limped away again, but Smyth doesn't agree that the Ryder Cup is beginning to lose its competitive edge.

"On that opening day, seven of the games went down the 18th hole and only one went against Europe. We have a strong side at the moment, and we have strength in depth, but it was all much tighter than the final score showed. We have a slight advantage, and over three days, that's all you need to win well. It's still a finely balanced event."

He will remember the scenes at the 16th green on the Sunday, the walk from the putting green to the first tee, and the sheer enthusiasm of the galleries. "Nothing comes close to the Ryder Cup, " he says.