IT doesn’t take much to confuse me, but the role of the wives and girlfriends at the Celtic Manor Ryder Cup has certainly got me scratching my head.

Now they are there for a reason, I am just unsure what it is.

I will float you two theories and you can decide for yourself, are they the most integral part of proceedings, as important as a caddie or a player, or do they indicate that the Ryder Cup is sexist, damaging any notion of equality?

Well, according to Janet Street Porter, it’s the latter.

“I thought golf was about hitting a ball into a hole with a stick. Now I realise that at championship level it’s an activity that requires leading players to bring a woman to sit in the background in a fetching outfit, crossing her legs in high heels, preferably with a mane of artfully teased blond hair and a winning smile. The Ryder Cup tournament, in which Europe take on the USA in Wales, is a showcase for Neanderthal attitudes,” she wrote yesterday.

Lisa Pavin, wife of captain Corey, has a slightly different viewpoint.

For a start, she has been referring to herself as the “Captainess.”

“When I hear people say, ‘At Ryder Cups, why are the wives so involved?’ I think, ‘Why wouldn’t they be?’” she said.

“Golf is a very individual sport, so when you come home your wife is your best friend, your confidante, your lover, your sports psychologist.

“A wife plays a very big role in a golfer’s life. I think a wife’s as big a part of your team as your caddie.

“So when people say the wives are having a more important role, well that’s because we should. We play a very integral role in the life of a golfer and therefore we’re going to play a very integral role in the (USA) team.”

Confused? I’ve decided Street-Porter isn’t a golf enthusiast and Mrs Pavin has a Tiger Woods sized ego. You can draw your own conclusions.

I had a wonderful day out on the course enjoying the golf on Saturday and I can’t get excited enough about the fantastic atmosphere, the largely Welsh crowd really contributing to a wonderful day of golf.

It was a pleasure and a privilege to see the Ryder Cup away from the creature comforts of the media centre and many thanks to the people at the 15th green who kept shouting Argus at me!

There were some suggestions that the Ryder Cup was becoming such a damp squib that it might be settled by a game of Tiger Woods golf on a games console, a possibility that becomes less and less silly. I say that, because the European team have spent hours playing that game this week. The worst culprit? Luke Donald, who plays as himself!

All credit to the BBC website, political section, for the following news items yesterday.

David Beckham has been spotted in Newport (he’s in Los Angeles). And the other celebrity they named as being in our fair city? Tiger Woods. Who would have thought it?