Lee Westwood feels he let down European captain Darren Clarke after failing to win a point in the Ryder Cup.
Englishman Westwood and fellow former No.1 Martin Kaymer were given wild cards by Clarke as the Northern Irishman looked for experience to balance the six rookies in his team at Hazeltine.
However, while Clarke's final choice, Thomas Pieters, justified his selection by winning four points from five matches, Westwood lost all three of his matches and Kaymer's only victory from four games came in Sunday's singles after the result had been decided.
Asked if he felt he had let down his good friend Clarke, Westwood said: "Yeah, a little bit. I was a captain's pick and I would have liked to have performed well for him, but we sat down (afterwards) and chatted about it.
"He said 'What could I have done differently?' and I said I thought you did all you could. The American team did to us what we have been doing to them the last 20 years.
"A lot of people said to me it's a good result for the Ryder Cup and it keeps the interest in it. We had won it three times in a row. Sooner or later they are going to win one and it just happened to be under Darren's watch."
Despite Europe's 17-11 defeat being their heaviest loss in 35 years, there has been precious little criticism of Clarke's captaincy from inside the camp, possibly welcome news to Westwood as he targets being captain himself in 2020.
