As you probably know, Rome wasn’t built in a day. The build-up to a Ryder Cup, meanwhile, clatters, rattles and bangs on just as long. In the Eternal City, the previews, the ponderings and the posturings have been going on for, well, an eternity.

There’s a tireless correspondent perched next to yours truly in the media centre who regularly churns out the kind of vast columns you’d get at the Pantheon. There will be tourists coming to gawp in wonder at his laptop before you know it.

All manner of experts, analysts and soothsayers have been drafted in to offer opinion and insight, while great bucket loads of statistics, algorithms, facts, figures and historical data have been tossed into a Ryder Cup predict-ograph, a cutting-edge contraption of clanking pistons, rumbling pulleys and birling cogs, and potential scorelines have been spewed out amid billowing, chuff-chuffs of steam. I’m getting slightly carried away here, but you get the general idea.

As somebody once said, “when it’s all said and done, that’s when the talking has to stop.” So, at last, here we are. The 44th Ryder Cup is finally ready to swing into action.

Two years ago at Whistling Straits, the scene was one of wildly contrasting fortunes and emotions. The USA, having doled out a dreadful 19-9 thumping to their shell-shocked guests from across the pond, had never looked more buoyant with eager chatter of Ryder Cup domination for years to come. Europe, on the other hand, had rarely felt more bereft.

Here in 2023, though, there’s talk of Europe being favourites in a changing landscape.

Since the last meeting, a total of eight players from that tussle have defected to the LIV Series. Brooks Koepka, who won the PGA Championship and was second in the Masters, is the only rebel to return having earned a captain’s pick for the US. Dustin Johnson, who won five out of five at Whistling Straits, is nowhere to be seen.

Nevertheless, the visiting team can still boast three of this year’s major winners, six of the world’s top 10 and all 12 players ranked inside the top 25.

As for Europe? Well, they lost bags of experience. Sergio Garcia, for instance, is absent for the first time since 1997. They also lost a Swedish captain in Henrik Stenson. In Ludvig Aberg, though, they gained a Swedish superstar.

The young rookie has been the talk of the steamie of late – his European Masters win clinched his wild card pick – as Europe’s golfers seemed to hog the golfing limelight. The Americans, meanwhile, have, by and large, retreated to the sidelines for the past month. Only Koepka, Justin Thomas and Max Homa have actually played competitively in September. Too lightly raced or perfectly primed? We will see.

Here at Marco Simone, the stage is set for an intriguing joust. In searing heat, which has led to this scribe tying an unprecedented fifth knot in the handkerchief that’s plonked on my head, this undulating, demanding layout will provide a physical test as much as an examination of technical prowess.

History abounds over this grand expanse of golfing terrain in the Rome countryside. The astronomer, Galileo, used to live in the castle that stands here while there are remains of fossils dating back 300,000 years in the catacombs.

Talking of ancient relics, the footage of a USA team actually winning the Ryder Cup on European soil, just about needs to be carefully preserved by a gloved museum curator. Thirty years have now passed since Tom Watson’s side won at The Belfry in 1993.

Interestingly, Luke Donald, the home skipper, has opted for an opening session of foursomes, the first time that has happened in a Ryder Cup on European soil since that reversal in ‘93. As a desperate omen, those of an American persuasion may cling to that like a barnacle on a ship’s hull.

Then again, who needs omens? “We have so many guys that have not played a foreign Ryder Cup,” said the US Open champion, Wyndham Clark. “I think that ignorance is bliss in my opinion.”

Zach Johnson’s message to his team is clear. “This will be an opportunity of a lifetime,” said the US captain of the quest to end the away day blues. Donald’s is just as simple. “This is your time,” he said to his players.

As for all and sundry who have been patiently awaiting the opening exchanges after weeks of relentless hype? About bloomin’ time. Let battle commence.