As one frazzled commentator gasped back in the day, “when it’s all said and done, that’s when the talking has to stop”. Wise words, old friend. After all the prattle comes the battle as the 42nd edition of the Ryder Cup finally gets cracking this morning.

In the months, weeks and days leading up to this latest instalment of the biennial bout, just about every single aspect of it has been pored over with the same kind of forensic attention to detail that used to be adopted by Mary Berry as she poked and prodded at the bottom of a Victoria Sponge.

Captains, vice-captains, picks, non-picks, potential pairings, jingoism, the miraculous presence of Tiger Woods, bonding sessions, course set-up, team-room ambience, soaring oratory, attire, the role of the wives and girlfriends . . . You name it, somebody has talked about it.

The last time the Americans won on European soil, in 1993, it was the year Bill Clinton got sworn in as the President of the United States.

Twenty five years on, a lot of folk are simply swearing at Donald Trump. And talking of turning the air blue, the general set up here at Le Golf National has done a good job in doing that too. “For **** sake,” said one observer when he got a first glimpse of golf’s biggest ever grandstand around the first tee.

Fling in the alluring autumnal blue skies and the liberal splatterings of patriotic European blue on the fixtures and fittings around the venue that would make a Brexiteer come out in a cold sweat and you’d like to think these home comforts won’t lead to the hosts feeling, well, blue come Sunday night.

The surroundings should be as comfortable as a pair of trusty old baffies as far as Thomas Bjorn’s men are concerned. Familiarity breeds contentment in this neck of the golfing woods.

Of those 12 players in Team Europe, only Tyrrell Hatton has not recorded a top-10 finish at Le Golf National in the French Open. In contrast, only three US players have actually played a competitive round here.

Two years ago, Hazeltine was playing long, wide and straightforward. Le Golf National is short, tight and footery. In the likes of Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson, Justin Thomas and Tony Finau, the US have the heavy artillery of booming drivers but the very nature of the course, with the abundant water hazards cutting off fairways and the deep rough entangling any waywardness in its withering embrace, will temper some of that fire power.

“On the PGA Tour, I’m usually hitting 10 to 12 drivers but here I hit maybe four to six,” said Ryder Cup rookie Finau. “It does take the driver out of your hands.”

Jim Furyk, the US skipper, has an embarrassment of riches at his disposal with 11 of the top 20 players on the world rankings featuring in his line-up. Europe have six, but in this pulsating, pressurised contest such number crunching and data analysis can often give you more bum steers than a jiggered Sat Nav.

In 2004, for instance, Europe had just one player in the world’s top 10 and they slaughtered Hall Sutton’s US side by an 18½ - 9½ margin on American turf.

But hang on. The scorelines don’t often reflect the nip and tuck nature of the match. During that 2004 encounter, 11 of the 28 ties over the three days went to the 18th and Europe plundered a profitable 8½ points from those tight tussles. In the nail-nibbling, nerve-jangling showdown at Medinah in 2012, meanwhile, 12 games were decided on the last with Europe taking 9½ points to edge to a 14½ - 13½ victory. It’s always been a game of fine margins, as Tiger Woods emphasised earlier in the week.

“I remember being part of some Presidents Cup teams that Jack Nicklaus captained and he said: ‘it’s plain and simple, who wins the 18th’,” said Woods of some of the decisive factors in the ebb and flow.

“Those are the matches that swing. If you are one-up and you lose the last, it goes to even or if you win the last to get a point or a half. These little half-point to point swings are enormous over the course of the entire cup.

“In the Presidents Cup wins that I was part of, we played the 18th well. In the Ryder Cup we haven’t.”

Bjorn is well aware of the facts, the figures and the foibles of the Ryder Cup. In this topsy-turvy, ding-dong, swings and roundabouts environment, the word “momentum” tends to get trotted out in wild abundance. It’s a big part of the proceedings and Bjorn knows about the importance of it.

He was a vice-captain two years ago and watched on as the US opened with a devastating salvo and blitzed the first session 4-0 to leave the shell-shocked Europeans quaking in the trenches.

In 2012, the Dane was an assistant when the fourball pairings of Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia, and Ian Poulter and Rory McIlroy managed to pinch the last two points on the Saturday to ensure the Europeans went into the singles 10-6 down and not 12-4 behind.

That telling late thrust, of course, provided the catalyst for that magical Miracle of Medinah during a rousing singles surge.

There will be a few twists, turns, thrills and spills over the next three days. That’s a certainty. Predicting where golf’s little gold chalice will end up come Sunday? Well, that’s a bit more uncertain.