Three leading American players yesterday refused to accept any responsibility for some appalling behaviour by Brookline galleries when the Ryder Cup returned to US hands, 11 days ago. But Tom Lehman gave a forthright apology for events on the 17th green.

It also emerged that Lehman wrote a letter last week to Jose Maria Olazabal, who became an unwitting victim of an unseemly climax to the event. The Spaniard has expressed the view that the matter should now be laid to rest.

Mark O'Meara, Payne Stewart and Lehman were at St Andrews yesterday as members of the US team for the Alfred Dunhill Cup. And while they acknowledged that standards of behaviour on the final day of the Ryder Cup were not all they might have been, this could be attributable to over-exuberance on the part of the players and unruly behaviour by a small percentage of fans.

"We're sorry for running out on the 17th green," said Lehman. "We're very sorry if we've caused you guys . . . like we haven't respected you. It was never our intention to show lack of respect or lack of courtesy, but in the excitement of the day, things just spilled out. I definitely don't think it's worth losing friendships over a golf tournament."

On hearing this, European skipper Mark James expressed surprise that the 1996 British Open champion should want the matter to be dropped. "You can't pretend that nothing has happened and what we saw and experienced at Brookline was very sad," said James. "If golf has a problem we should address it and put it right."

One couldn't help feeling that these comments by James would have carried far more conviction had they been voiced at The Country Club in the immediate aftermath of the event, and not on his return to Europe. As it was, it fell to one of his assistants, Sam Torrance, to try and uphold the rights of the European players.

In the event, the captain added: "If I had my way, there would be a loss-of-hole penalty at the Ryder Cup (if a player were judged guilty of attempting to incite the crowd). But it's unlikely the PGA of America would initiate anything like that."

Sergio Garcia, at 19 the youngest player in the history of the event, shared Olazabal's view about drawing a line under the entire affair. "Everyone knows what happened and I think we've talked enough about it," he said. And Darren Clarke said: "I was disappointed with their behaviour but I congratulated all of the American players."

Still, it was inevitable the Dunhill Cup trio would be put in the spotlight on this, the first opportunity the European media have had of hearing their views since Brookline. And while making no attempt to dodge various aspects of the occasion, they stopped short of acknowledging that certain players were guilty of inciting the crowd.

Said Stewart: "There were supposedly 30,000 fans there and probably 80 to 100 of those were not true golf fans. They were just athletic fans who treated the Ryder Cup as they would treat a football, hockey or basketball game. They probably don't understand the etiquette and sportsmanship that's involved in golf."

When told of the incident in which a spectator spat at European skipper James's wife, Jane, O'Meara acknowledged that in the so-called War on the Shore at Kiawah Island in 1991 and now at Brookline, "It's just horrible the way everybody's been treated." But he questioned whether it was fair to label all Americans or the Ryder Cup a disgrace, because of "eight or 12 or 20 fans" who were unruly.

He went on: "Because the game has changed so much and you have so much attention by the media created by fine young players like Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods, we have to make sure that the fans are educated so that it doesn't happen again."

Meanwhile, Stewart used the opportunity to offer a remedy for the slow play which was also a regrettable feature of the event. "I think Mark (James) and Ben (Crenshaw) have had some chats about ways of speeding up the pace of play by not allowing any practice-putting," he said. "I think that's a wonderful idea."

He also repeated a suggestion by the 1991 US skipper, Dave Stockton, that former captains should act as "walking marshals, so to speak." As Stewart put it: "A recognisable figure like Lanny Wadkins (the 1995 US captain) could help control the crowd."

After all three had had their say, it became clear that they were prepared to go so far and no further. They had played remarkable golf to regain the trophy and if they over-reacted to Justin Leonard's monster putt on the 17th, who could blame them?

Against that background, it may be appropriate to take on board the views of Olazabal, the most wronged individual in the entire affair. "We just can't keep on talking about this," said the reigning US Masters champion. "The Ryder Cup is history and we must try and get things back to normal."

In the process, it may be that valuable lessons have, in fact, been learned - by both sides.