‘HAPPIEST days of your lives’ is the message that will greet every member of the European team when they leave the locker room at Gleneagles and Lee Westwood, for one, would find it hard to disagree.

For a golfer who has previously been regarded as the world number one, the Ryder Cup has provided him with so many different memories; the majority of which are all favourable and unforgettable.

Westwood is 41 now and this will be his ninth Ryder Cup, a regular against the Americans since he broke through alongside Nick Faldo at Valderrama in 1997 under the watchful eye of captain Seve Ballesteros.

This time around he required one of Paul McGinley’s wild card picks after an inconsistent year, but that will not dilute the experience he carries in to his week in Perthshire, where he will be expected to guide some of the younger boys almost as much as he needs to hole his putts.

“Paul wants me there because I started to play well again,” said Westwood, who turned in improved displays at the WGC-Bridgestone and US PGA having missed four cuts in a row prior to those.

“Hopefully I can be something of a mentor, that’s what the experienced players have to do and that’s what Nick was like for me at Valderrama. You try to bleed the rookies in. What you go through that first morning is incredible. It can help you.

“Nick told me to try to enjoy it when I went out there. He said play aggressively and enjoy it. He said he would be there if I messed up. I had a similar chat with Nicolas Colsaerts and I did again with Martin Kaymer when we played together (in 2012).

“There are going to be nerves, no matter what, you just have to try to make the rookies or younger lads feel comfortable. But all of us we will feel nervous. But at the end of the day it is just another round of golf!”

The enjoyment theme is what McGinley has drummed in to his players throughout the build-up in Scotland. The ‘Happiest days of your lives’ quote inspiring the Europeans comes from renowned Scottish coach Bob Torrance, who died in July.

Torrance, the father of vice-captain Sam, used to shake every player’s hand on the range before the first tee and utter those words. And that is the last thing the players will see before leaving the locker room as they head out for Ryder Cup action in front of thousands.

Worksop’s Westwood, the only golfer to have a link to the North-East at Gleneagles because of his attachment with Close House on the outskirts of Newcastle, jokingly suggested he ‘has more Ryder Cup experience than a lot of captains’.

As well as shining alongside Faldo 17 years ago, he helped teenager Sergio Garcia to settle in 1999 and then did the same for Darren Clarke six weeks after his wife died in 2006. Two years ago in Medinah he helped rookies Molinari and Colsaerts, so it would be no surprise to see Westwood appear alongside first-timers Jamie Donaldson, Victor Dubuisson and Stephen Gallacher at Gleneagles.

Either way, he hopes to have further celebratory Ryder Cup photographs to hang around his home. He said: “I have a few pictures, there’s a lot there! I have a good one when I holed a putt to tie in Detroit. A couple of others, high fiving Darren, high fiving nick. There’s been too many really. There’s hundreds. I’ve very few bad memories.

“Beating Matt Kuchar two years ago also ranks very highly. I remember walking to the 12th tee after tying the match, Jose Maria (Olazabal) came over and I said to him ‘I reckon we could win this’. He looked at me and got tears in his eyes. I thought ‘Christ, that’s just what I wanted to see!’

“It’s all about getting the momentum in this game, and then at 13 it started to come together and it was nice to turn it on when I needed to. I felt we could win the whole match.”

In his bid to impress and force his way on to the Ryder Cup stage, Westwood has lost 23 pounds in six weeks after hitting the gym to improve his game. Having helped Europe to win six of his eight outings, he does not feel too old to party for a further time – which could well be his last one.

“I have always appreciated playing Ryder Cup,” he said. “It is a privileged experience to go through. The more you play, the more you learn to savour the experience that you’re going through.

“It is going to be hard, the American team is a very good team, but hopefully we can celebrate on Sunday. The party in Detroit was good, Valderrama was great ... at that time I was 23, sat in a room with Bernhard Langer, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo ... all my heroes, I watched growing up. It was like schoolboy stuff.

“It was my first experience, not knowing how to behave, with Prince Andrew in the room. I wasn’t sure what was going on. It didn’t take me long to get in to the swing mind! I can’t this time I’m on a diet!”