Miguel - el rey del mambo

Miguel Angel Jimenez is a good mover on the dancefloor. Photo Eoin Clarke/www.golffile.ieMatt Kuchar might just be the king of the US team room.

Not only does the American dominate the table tennis table with his ping-pong prowess, his skipper reckons he might just be the best dancer in the squad. Not that he knows for sure.

“It’s not me and I hear it’s not Tiger and I bet it’s not Fred,” Love said when asked to name the best dancer in the US team. “So I’d go with Kuch.”

Chalk that one up as a victory for José María Olazábal, who now has professional proof who’s the best mover in his team room, the guru of the Rumba, the Cha-cha-cha, the Tango, the Foxtrot and the Waltz.

If the Ryder Cup is ever decided by a dance off, Miguel Ángel Jiménez will be the man asked to step out for the men in a sequined blue sweater after the latest European team building exercise.

“We had a Strictly Come Dancing competition last night,” Lee Westwood revealed yesterday. “Apparently I’ve got great hips.”

While the Americans play ping-ping, Europe have continued to try just about everything to keep up their spirits in the evenings. At The K Club in 2006, Ian Woosnman had a hypnotist/magician and a caricaturist.

But Olazábal, who danced some flamenco in delight at Muirfield Village in 1987 when Europe beat the Americans on US soil for the first time in the 60-year history of the events, carefully choreographed Europe’s latest bonding exercise.

“We had proper dancers bussed in with sequins on and everything,” Westwood explained. “There were none on me though.”

The Worksop man was grateful that the sartorially obsessed Ian Poulter was not given advance warning.

“Poulter was on our team and managed to bring break-dancing into ballroom,” Westwood said impishly. “I think that went against us with the judges. ‘The Worm’ didn’t go down well.

“He didn’t have a special outfit on but had he done, he’d probably have had to dress down for it.

“It was a bit of a laugh. Some of us had professional partners.”

Westwood was coy on the gory details of Europe’s efforts to shake a leg in the team hotel but he did reveal that Martin Kaymer might have two left feet, both made of wood.

Justin Rose and his wife Kate were on the winning side. Not that it was called Justin’s team.

“Surprise, surprise, Miguel’s team won,” Westwood said.