The Autumn sunshine shimmered on the course and 12 very attractive women in matching electric blue turtle-necks, dark blue skirts and jackets, big hair and "Jackie O" make-up sat in the warmth and smiled - what greater delight was there than this? They grinned as the massed pipers marched their partners into the main arena, they grinned through the prayer, they grinned with gritted teeth through the German national anthem.

They were, of course, the American partners and they were back ensconced in the Ryder Cup pantomime, where once every two years Gloria Steinman and Andrea Dworkin are locked firmly in the wardrobe. It is back to the kitchen and on with the apron for these women, who dress up in Identikit outfits and become the ornamental wife, that day-dream of every 1950s demob-happy marine.

There were reports yesterday that the women had been picked up and taken off to a seabass lunch at the Warwickshire country mansion Packington Hall. Maybe they followed that up with a trip to the Birmingham branch of Harvey Nichols, or maybe they exercised their social consciences and went to investigate inner-city Solihull. They're damned if they do, and damned if they don't, or rather ignored if they do and ignored if they don't - their role over the next three days is just to sit there and look pretty.

US captain Curtis Strange is a huge supporter of their role and sees them as a vital component in the well-oiled US machine. He encourages their appearance at the opening ceremony and will chivy them to stand inside the ropes as they follow their partners during matchplay.

But at the gala dinner on Wednesday night he was out-chivalried by Sam Torrance, the European captain. Torrance, who has easy charm, took the radical step of introducing not only the player but also his partner. So at the European table Colin Montgomerie's wife actually had a name - Eimear.

"The wives are fantastic," said Torrance yesterday, after he had ruled out a sex ban for his team. "In the end they are the ones in the room when the players go back with the frustrations and whatever. They calm them down. They are a very important part. On the golf course as well - it is very nice to see someone who loves you out there."

Honeyed words. But it is a bizarre situation for any 21st century woman to be in - there were certainly not many male equivalants to be seen at the Solheim Cup last week.

And of course when the golfing women did pull away from their usual silent emoting, at the last Ryder Cup in Brookline in 1999, they were condemned for following their husbands on to the green, arms waving and hollering.

Women at the Ryder Cup really are to be seen and not heard, stars and stripes girdle and all.