I found myself semi-conscious in front of the TV last Thursday night, one eye open with incredulity, the other hanging heavy after my trip back from the Far East with Retief Goosen. It was probably the best state to be in for the opening ceremony of the 35th Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills.Caddie's Role

Virtually brain dead. If I had been more lucid I could have not watched it. Either that, or I would have been ranting and raving about the tackiness of the whole thing. The sight of Donald Trump hijacking the ceremony with his unique brand of bling and blather was beyond compare.

The ceremony was pastiche, sickly, cringe-making. Worse again, it was tedious and, it appeared to me, completely at odds with the dignified traditions I have always associated with the game.

But I guess that's showbiz, and the way in which the marketing mandarins of the Ryder Cup feel it's necessary to sell this vastly over-hyped event. God knows what rabbit they'll pull out of the hat when the Ryder Cup descends on the K Club in a couple of years.

But then the old walls are crumbling and the barbarians are at the gate. The golf I grew up with and love is under assault. Witness the indiscriminate use of the golf buggy, the mulligan, the stogie, the beers at the turn and contrived scoring systems designed to entertain extremely casual golfers. This is golf US-style and it's seeping into golf Europe.

I don't want to get too snooty here and deride the development of the game either in the US or here; but it strikes me that in the drive to win a greater market share and bring more people into the game, the qualities that make golf such a unique prospect are being eroded. Last Thursday's Ryder Cup carry-on was an extreme manifestation of that.

I suppose one must take at face value the European players' constant references to team spirit and the team dynamic which propelled them, they say, to such a comprehensive victory over a hapless US team. And it sounds convincing. And likeable. And appealing to all of those who have got interested in the game in the last decade.

Of course, the Ryder Cup is an easy concept to sell to new arrivals into the world of golf. Them and US, the Sam Maguire Cup, a World Cup Final.

It is a fantastic reduction of a complex game and a transformation of an individual pursuit into a team concept.

The new punters perhaps developed an interest in the game in the mid-1980s when the Ryder Cup started to enchant the marketing people. For them it is the greatest achievement for a golfer. With the current TV and media drive behind Sam's old trophy, 2006 in Kildare will consume the media, in an unhealthy way, from yesterday until September in two years.

I think it could be a great competition, and I suppose I should be impressed by the seeming selflessness of golfers for whom, outside of this competition, a team is them and their caddie.

But the overkill, the hype, the remorseless countdown to Ryder Cup points and "who'll be in and who'll be out" has turned me against it.

What a golfer wants to win is a Major, not a Ryder Cup.

Professional golf is a selfish game. Ninety-nine per cent of a golfer's career is devoted to him/herself. Thinking of someone or something else does not come naturally. Why should it? It's the nature of their existence: if you don't look after yourself nobody else will.

I know there are many arguments about finishing the matches still left on the course after the trophy was sealed by the impressive Colin Montgomerie's winning putt on the 18th. I do not see the point in the others continuing, apart from personal records which, of course, shouldn't matter in a team event. Another contradiction.

Watching such contrived camaraderie in the name of patriotism and team and a huge marketing machine that is using the finest golfers on both sides of the Atlantic as tools to generate a massive profit for the Tours and PGA's concerned is, for me, off-putting.

It is a great big party for all those very important guests. I would love to see the junket bill that comes out of the "profits" that the Ryder circus generates.

Might we be nearing the point where the Europeans win the cup so often that it loses appeal again? I don't think so, although I'm not sure how many years the US viewing public could put up with the long, cheerless faces of their team at the closing ceremony on Sunday night.

But well done Team Europe. I did enjoy watching the putts holed under the most intense pressure imaginable, and the convincing victory that followed.

Also, the remarkable sight of a bunch of supporters in Union Jack tee-shirts chanting "Europe, Europe, Europe". If nothing else, that captured the incongruity of the tournament.

Olé, olé, olé the K club.