We were delayed in Chicago en route to Kentucky for 18 hours as the effects of Hurricane Ike swept up the States and, as you probably know, there was some damage to the course as a result. The media centre threatened to take off in the direction of Indiana, the place was closed and our efforts to get things ready were delayed by 24 hours. This was bad on so many levels!

But thanks to the sterling efforts of our engineering team we seem to be back on track with just a couple of hours to go till it all gets under way (touching all available wood).

We were still testing things up until Thursday evening; making sure our microphones worked at all four corners of the course, listening through to 24 press conferences and interviews with all the players and wondering what on earth Nick Faldo had been talking about!

Obviously Faldo and Paul Azinger have had their selection dilemmas in the last couple of days and it's pretty much the same at 5 Live. Who do you pair with who? Who goes out first? Who gets a rest? Big questions all. But I'm happy with my choices - I'm sure they won't disappoint come the big day!

One of the big things we've been trying to sort in the last few days is making sure our commentary can be heard by as many people as possible. It's great that the crowds on course can hear us through little radios they can buy when they get here, especially when people tap the commentators on the shoulder and make points or say they're enjoying the coverage.

It's very important on a practical level too - 40,000 people will be here each day and that could mean 10,000 people watching each match... not everyone's going to see everything and that's where we come in. We're also going to be heard round the world through the Ryder Cup website so we look forward to having people join in with our coverage from the four corners of the earth.

There are very strict rules here though for the commentators. All of them have to walk a designated route round the course, and although they commentate from inside the ropes, they have to stay within one arm's length of them and are certainly not allowed to get anywhere near the fairways themselves... our guys will plough through the rough to get into the right position. If the rules are flouted, you're out! Now that's a thought that's going to fester.

My checklist for the morning for the commentators has two key things. Remember suntan lotion is possibly the most important of all. It's over 80 degrees here and if you're out there for 12 hours, you're going to really suffer if you haven't got any. The other essential is to try not to lose your guest summariser which is harder to achieve than you might think.

With so many people here in a relatively small area, especially round the clubhouse and the first tee, it's quite possible to misplace a former Ryder Cup captain or player with the risk we may never see them again.

So that's it, I think we're all set. The commentators all went to bed early as it is an early start to get the media shuttle from our hotel to the course - we were off at 5.30am to make the half hour journey.

Hope you can listen to some of the coverage and I hope we can convey the emotion and excitement of this fantastic event over the next three days.

While the Cheltenham Festival is full of triumph and heartache, a Test match is filled with nuance and intrigue, and the Olympics is sporting excellence personified, the Ryder Cup is a combination of all of that and more.

It grabs you by the throat on a cool Friday morning and doesn't let go until dusk on the Sunday evening; three days of unremitting pressure, drama and skill that can be won by the smallest of margins and lost by the slightest mistake.

This will be the third Ryder Cup I've worked on for 5 Live, the second as its main producer.

The planning for this year's event began from my point of view on that final afternoon at the K Club in 2006. I say planning, perhaps more like a few thoughts about what we could have done better in Ireland coupled with the knowledge that Andrew Cotter's fabulous commentary on Darren Clarke's winning moment - "The Ryder Cup is safe in European arms" - would be the clip we begin with two years later.

I visited Valhalla in April after the Masters to have a look round. There were two purposes to the trip.

First to meet with the PGA to go through how things would work, discuss where our studios would be, where our production vans would go and their plans for the competition as a whole.

Second because it is important to see at first hand how flat the course is, where the trees are and where there are sight lines so we can judge how our on course equipment will work. The more trees and hills there are on a course, the more difficult it is to broadcast (reports ahead of Celtic Manor in 2010 suggest we may need hiking equipment to deal with the humps and hollows there).

We also got a chance to look round the city of Louisville itself - it struck me as having a very small centre - only a few bars and restaurants - and it is quite difficult to imagine thousands of fans taking it over.

That's the other thing about these "site visits", it is hard to fast forward in your mind six months to what the scene will be like when you next see it, a couple of days before the Ryder Cup starts.

In April it was just another very nice golf course with one or two people going about their business. In September, it is the centre of the sporting world.

The next step is putting our team together.

The 5 Live golf team is lucky to have so many good commentators at our disposal. Our correspondent Iain Carter, John Murray, Mark Pougatch and Alistair Bruce-Ball will be our on course team and next week it will be great to welcome back Andrew Cotter and Paul Eales from BBC TV.

We're also fortunate to be able to call on the services of a man with almost unparalleled experience - former Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher.

His thoughts on what will be going through Nick Faldo's mind during the ups and downs of the week will be invaluable to us, as will the experience of Andrew Coltart who knows what it is like to go head-to-head with Tiger in the final day's singles.

Andrew Magee will be our new American voice. He won four times on the PGA tour and is now a leading commentator on US TV.

Interesting fact about Andrew? He's the only man to have holed in one on a par 4 in a PGA tour event.

You may ask what's happened to our regular analyst Jay Townsend. Well, he will no doubt pop up during our coverage, but he works for US TV during the Ryder Cup.

After we've done that there are various technical things to sort out like picking the theme music.

I've gone with a piece you may recognise if you were fortunate enough to go to any matches in the Rugby World Cup last year - an orchestral version of Jean Michel Jarre track, "Industrial Revolutions".

We also need to work out how the Ryder Cup fits into a busy weekend of sport on 5 Live, which includes Chelsea against Manchester United.

Then it's trying to deal with the unexpected! What do I mean? Well only a few days ago we got the bad news that the longest serving member of the 5 Live Golf team, Andrew
Murray, has had to withdraw from our coverage this year because of a knee injury - we all wish Andrew a speedy recovery.

Equally, I thought we had done all the preparation we could at the K Club two years ago, then the tail end of Hurricane Gordon hit Ireland the night before it started, knocking down trees on the course and generally causing mayhem with our equipment.

We went on air on the first morning with no idea how much of the course we could broadcast from! You may have heard there's the odd hurricane about in the States right now, though I'm assured none of them will be anywhere near Louisville.

I'll give you an update on how we're doing when we get there, but everything seems to be in place. Apart from the fact I was told some of our on course transmitters are currently in New Zealand. But I'm sure they will be here in time!

I've been lucky enough to see some great action over that time - three Masters, Monty nearly winning at Winged Foot, Harrington winning his USPGA, Tiger seeing off Rocco Mediate on one leg at Torrey Pines, plus five Open Championships and next week will be my third Ryder Cup.

Before doing golf I had a season looking after horse racing and have worked as part of the rugby union team since 2002.

Without wishing to irritate a lot of you, I don't actually play golf although I keep telling myself I should. Having said that, Ryder Cups and majors form many of the great sporting moments for me over the past 20 years.