“I suppose if it was a regular tournament I probably wouldn’t be here,” said Westwood. “It obviously makes a big difference that it’s just a small field and no cut and a world championship event.”

Westwood did not even make it to the end of the last one in Akron last month.

He went down with tonsilitis then and after recovering from that started feeling ill again at the weekend.

Cup partner Darren Clarke describes him as a hypochondriac, but Westwood revealed yesterday he was in bed by 8.45pm on Sunday – albeit only for an hour.

“I was snoozing because I was feeling so dreadful, but somebody rang and I came downstairs. I thought I’ll only have a couple of hot toddies and it ended up being about five, but it’s the most sober I’ve ever been on Monday morning after a Ryder Cup.”

Tim Finchem, commissioner of the US Tour, said on Tuesday he had been kept awake by the European party in the room below his.

But Westwood stated: “I think it was coming from the Americans. They were having a farewell party when we went around to their room – the karaoke machine was hooked up."

Waking up on Monday the former European number one did not even know if there was a place for him in this week’s field, but then came the world rankings that showed he was up from 51st to 50th and therefore in.

As a wild card last week Westwood was delighted to emerge unbeaten in the record-equalling win.

He had two wins with Clarke, two halves with Colin Montgomerie and a singles win over Chris DiMarco and was joint top-scorer with Sergio Garcia for the second match running.

Westwood, meanwhile, has been around long enough not to believe everything he reads in the press – not even when his wife is the one doing the writing.

His wife Laurae did a column from the K Club for a Sunday newspaper last week and referred to a trip to the Bahamas she and her husband took with Clarke and his late wife Heather in April.

“Darren knew by then that he was in the Ryder Cup team – Lee didn’t,” she wrote in the Mail on Sunday.

That was bound to raise a few eyebrows to golf followers because according to European captain Ian Woosnam it was only a month ago he told Clarke he was giving him a wild card.

But Westwood said yesterday it was all news to him and joked: “I live with her and take everything she says with a pinch of salt!”

Eleven of the European side – all bar Paul McGinley, who failed to qualify - and 10 of the Americans are in the 63-strong line-up, with Tiger Woods defending the title he won in San Francisco last year and trying for a sixth successive stroke play victory.