Ryder Cup great Sam Torrance is hoping to help mastermind another European triumph over the US at Hazeltine this weekend but the celebrated Scot knows the battle plan can easily be tossed out of bounds.

With Darren Clarke’s Cup holders in action today in the opening sessions of foursomes and fourballs, the deliberating and pondering over pairings and partnerships is finally over and the tactics are being put into practice.

Torrance, a veteran of nine Ryder Cups as a player, is relishing his role as a vice-captain and his vast experience is a key weapon in Clarke’s armoury.

The Largs man skippered Europe to Cup glory at The Belfry in 2002 and had everything planned to a tee. But the 63-year-old knows that in the cut-and-thrust of the contest, the team skipper often has to think on his feet.

Torrance said: “I arrived at the Belfry in 2002 I had the order for Friday morning, for Friday afternoon, for Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon and the singles order. It was done. But not one of them stayed the same. I’d ripped up every one of them almost in the first hour. As captain you need to be thinking about this. You’ve formulated a plan and it’ll not be far from where it was meant to be. But it changes.”

There is a general consensus that every player in the 12 man team should be blooded on the first day of play. Back in 1999, European captain Mark James left three rookies – Jarmo Sandelin, Jean van de Velde and Andrew Coltart – on the sidelines until the Sunday singles and was criticised for his tactics as all three lost during the USA’s rousing fightback at Brookline.

Torrance, who was a vice-captain at that ’99 match, has his own opinions on the approach and doesn’t necessarily believe that every player should be given a run on day one.

He added: “Everyone must play before Sunday but even that’s not written in stone. The hardest thing in the matches as they unfold is making decisions to change things to rectify something or push ahead further. It’s ever changing, the whole scenario, pairings, everything is fluid because you may get players coming in saying, ‘I’ve just lost my driving’, It’s very open to change.

"In 1999 I learned more about my role as captain in that one match than I did playing in eight Ryder Cups. There’s just so much going on that you don’t know about as a player.

“Darren’s been fantastic. Everything he’s done has been excellent. Every captain is different and each brings his own things to the matches. It’s often very subtle, you can’t always pinpoint what’s different, but everything’s where it should be. The players have all been well warned about everything. As vice-captains, we’re there to assess the condition of the players mentally and game wise, to make sure they’re relaxed and happy so that they’ll be competitive.”

While Torrance savours the Ryder Cup atmosphere, his compatriot and fellow vice-captain Paul Lawrie has been left “gutted” after picking up a virus.

The former Open champ, whose two Ryder Cup appearances as a player in 1999 and 2012 were both on US soil, has been confined to his hotel room as a precaution against the bug spreading through the team.

Lawrie said: “I felt unwell on Wednesday morning and I went to the course but came straight back. I slept all day, saw a doctor in the afternoon and he said I had virus and best to stay in the room for a couple of days away from the team. I’m totally gutted.”