To the untutored eye, it may not have been immediately apparent, but the men of Team Europe were wearing blazers made from bamboo, writes Miriam Lord, at the K Club.
As any panda knows, bamboo thread is finer than silk and softer than the softest cashmere. It is also very expensive. For example, the eye-popping green garment adorning the backs of Europe's golfers yesterday cost about €850.
This is the sort of thing that grown men tell you at the Ryder Cup without batting an eyelid. It seems the appetite of your average golf fanatic for statistics and useless information is boundless.
Please God, let the competition begin before we all drown in a sea of trivia.
At last today, we might see more to this Ryder Cup than unrelenting hype, ceaseless marketing and shameless product placement. (Although full marks must go to Fyffes for cheekily advertising themselves recently as the "unofficial banana to the Ryder Cup".)
The showbiz began in earnest yesterday with a glitzy official opening and more new outfits from the respective teams and their partners. The event fitted in beautifully with the surreal nature of the pre-match atmosphere at the K Club, where you step off the bus and surrender your sense of proportion along with your mobile phone.
Anything that moves and everything that is nailed down has a sponsor. Even the gardaí got in on the act - officers were spotted wearing polo shirts and baseball hats displaying the Garda Síochána badge.
The dull hours between the practice rounds and the entertainment were filled by press conferences involving the two team captains, who announced the pairings for this morning's fourballs. This gave rise to marvellously deep exchanges.
We learned that the "key holes" on the course are the 16th, the 17th and the 18th, along with the first four or five holes, while the par fives could prove crucial to the outcome of matches, and anything could happen at any of the holes.
Meanwhile, the eating habits of the visiting Americans continued to fascinate. First, there was the story of Tom Lehman bringing over hundreds of bags of corn chips from home, because he and his team love them. Yesterday it emerged that Team USA hit the trough again after Wednesday night's big gala dinner at Citywest.
Despite having put themselves on the outside of a meal that included rack of lamb, seafood and a selection of desserts, the guys returned to the west wing of the K Club were they got stuck into buffalo wings, slices of pizza and Haribo sweets.
Why they aren't all twice the size they are is a miracle - there isn't a pick on Tiger Woods. Or Mrs Woods, for that matter. Which brings us on to the wives and partners. (Here at Team Irish Times, we do not hold with acronyms, for obvious reasons.) What with the excitement of musician Donal Lunny emerging from the middle of a giant golfball, the K Club crowd almost missed the arrival of the wives and partners at the opening ceremony.
Thankfully, the American ladies made their presence felt, prancing around the perimeter of the large VIP area like show ponies on their way to the front row. The more low-key European ladies managed more of a scuttle, preferring not to do a circuit of the field.
Those journalists on wife-watch for the week licked their nibs and started writing. The US contingent, all teeth and hair, wore rather sensible tweed coats, in a pattern our grannies would have called "pepper and salt". As style statements go, our grannies would probably have loved them. "A bit hickey" seemed to be the view in the crowd.
In a moment of rare honesty, or perhaps a gesture of solidarity with their high-earning husbands, most of the European ladies opted for large checks. Short wool jackets in tones of heather and gold were teamed with aubergine trousers or skirts. And then again, perhaps in an effort to confuse their American counterparts, some chose to go for duck-egg blue and grey ensembles. This battle is being fought on two fronts.
Everyone was on the lookout for celebrities, so Ministers Brian Cowen, John O'Donoghue and Martin Cullen were ignored.
EU commissioner Charlie McCreevy sat in the middle of the VIP area, away from his former colleagues.
For a while, it seemed like former Formula One boss Eddie Jordan was the biggest name present, until he was usurped by rugby great Keith Wood, who in turn had to give way to tennis legend Boris Becker.
Michael Smurfit, co-owner of the K Club, stalked the turf with a proprietorial air, while his partner in the business, Gerry Gannon, preferred to sit in the comforting company of fellow millionaires. They included Dermot Desmond, JP McManus and John Magnier. Larry Goodman sat a few rows behind.
MC for the afternoon was broadcaster Sharon Ní Bheoláin, who looked every bit as stunning as the most stunning golf wife. She was sprayed into a slinky evening gown - a thoroughly modern Irish colleen for the American audiences.
President McAleese wore bright orange in political counterpoint to all the green of the European golfers. They looked very casual beside their American opponents, who were dressed the way the bigwigs in the audience usually dressed. It was as if Tom Lehman and his team had done a clothes swap with the businessmen cheerleaders in their expensive golfing gear.
Rain threatened throughout the ceremony, but miraculously, held off. But as darkness fell last night, a vicious wind was once more ripping around the course.
Hope it keeps fine for them.