Masters champion Danny Willett last night admitted that the furore surrounding his own brother’s controversial magazine article has led to him taking his eye off the ball on the eve of the 41st Ryder Cup.

Willett, who made a stunning Major breakthrough at Augusta last April, is one of six rookies in Darren Clarke’s European side but his preparations have been tossed into turmoil by the incendiary comments made by his elder sibling.

In a now well-documented article, Pete Willett described American fans, among other things, as a ‘braying mob of imbeciles’ and a bunch of “fat, stupid, greedy, classless, b*******’. It may have been meant to be tongue-in-cheek but the episode has become a hasty exercise in damage limitation for both Willett and Team Europe as apologies were swiftly issued.

Willett’s build-up to his Ryder Cup debut had been going along swimmingly until the publication of his brother’s column and the 27-year-old Yorkshireman is hoping he can redial back into his golf and focus fully on the task of helping Europe win a fourth successive Ryder Cup.

He said: “As a rookie, it’s supposed to be a special week. What was said was said and there’s no going back on that now and hopefully we can draw a line under it. But it’s been hard for me to get back on a fully focus over the last few hours. That’s been the toughest thing. I have to be relatively selfish in all this and say that I appreciate that (writing) is maybe my brother’s career but this is also my career at the same time. If it was someone else writing it and his last name wasn’t Willett nobody would be making much of a fuss about it. It’s unfortunate and I’m sure we’ll have a good chat when we get home.”

Willett was waiting to make his Ryder Cup debut after being left out of today's opening session of foursomes.

Henrik Stenson and Justin Rose, who won three out of three in pairs at Gleneagles in 2014, lead the European assault in the top tie against Jordan Spieth and Patrick Reed, who also forged a fine alliance as rookies two years ago.

Rory McIlroy was paired up with new recruit Andy Sullivan for a clash with Phil Mickelson and Rickie Fowler while experienced hands Sergio Garcia and Martin Kaymer were set to play Jimmy Walker and Zach Johnson.

In the anchor match, Lee Westwood and Belgian rookie Thomas Pieters were squaring up to Dustin Johnson and Matt Kuchar.