One recent afternoon Lee Westwood and John, his father, were sitting in the dining-room at Worksop Golf Club. The physical likeness between them, in their faces and their powerful chests, was striking. There is an exceptional closeness between the retired maths teacher and the Ryder Cup star, and it is not just because they started golf at the same time and both had their first birdie on the same hole on the same day, when they were playing with one another. It transcends their 25-year age divide. It was no surprise when Lee Westwood said that he and his parents telephone one another every day that he is away from home. To him, to them, that is perfectly normal.

John Westwood recalled the time that Lee took the paint brushes out of a jam jar and drank the turpentine in the bottom. “I was 6 at the time,” Lee Westwood said. He remembered the night just before he went to tour school in 1993, when he played his father at cards and won. “I owe him £600 to this day,” John said.

Now John is talking about the competitiveness of his son, which has helped him to win two out of three tournament play-offs and acquire a remarkable record in the Ryder Cup. Five appearances, 25 matches, 14 victories and three halves. Westwood last lost a match in the Ryder Cup in the Saturday afternoon four-balls at The Belfry in 2002.

“I've had good partners - Nick Faldo at first, Sergio [García], Monty [Colin Montgomerie] and Darren [Clarke], but I think being able to hole out well is a big advantage,” Lee said. “I am pretty good at putts of five to six feet, especially under pressure. I like matchplay. My long game is pretty solid. I tend not to give too many holes away and I have matchplay experience from my amateur days. I am fiercely competitive.”

If competitiveness can be taught, it was taught to Lee. “He and I used to have swimming races on holiday,” John said. “If it was diving, I might give him a mark occasionally and then he would try and beat that mark. We did press-ups against one another. When he was little we would roll cars to see who could get it closer to the edge of the table. We would arm-wrestle. The competition was not vicious. When he won, he got rewarded.”

Andrew 'Chubby' Chandler, Westwood's manager, tells a story of being on holiday recently with the Westwoods and how Tommy Chandler, his son, 12, played pool against Lee and was soundly beaten. “I wouldn't let Thomas win because it would have been a hollow victory,” Lee said. “First time he beats me at pool, he'll remember it. That was the way I was brought up. My dad never let me win. The first time I beat him at arm-wrestling it meant a lot to me. Still does.”

Lee was good at sport as he grew up in Worksop, playing football on the left wing for older teams at Valley School. He represented Valley at football, rugby, cricket and cross country. He was best at athletics, running 800 metres in 2min 53sec when he was 9. “That was my distance,” Lee said. “I was never a great fan of the 400. It was too long a sprint.”

In the Westwood household there was another force at work, the influence of John's parents, John Cyril, nicknamed Bert, and Joan. “I don't suppose my mother ever did anything wrong in her life,” John said. “I don't know whether I should tell you this but she was still giving Lee pocket money when he was 19 and hadn't earned a penny in his life.” Bert or Joan collected Lee from school, taking him to their home while John taught maths at Valley and Tricia Westwood, Lee's mother, worked as a chiropodist. “Both my grandparents had a big influence on me because I spent a lot of time with them while growing up,” Lee said. “Grandma saw me hitting a bush during a tournament and heard me swearing. She didn't tell me off. She just said to me later, ‘I didn't like that.'” Lee grimaced. “That was a ticking off from her.”

The closeness between them became obvious when she died a couple of years ago. Lee, on holiday in the Bahamas the week before the Masters when it happened, missed the cut at Augusta and missed the next seven cuts as well. “I wasn't there for three or four months after that,” he said. “I couldn't concentrate.” Three times each week, Bert and Joan taught old-time and modern-sequence dancing in Worksop and took their best pupils to the national championships. Lee was one such, briefly, and was highly commended in his first exam, aged 9. “I did it because I thought it would help my balance and footwork, and it did help my balance,” he said.

John pointed out that it did more than that. “Everything in dancing was detail,” he said. “Lee had to listen and as a result he is pretty good at picking things up.” Using his ability to remember detail, Westwood is unusual among golfers in not having a coach. In his first years as a professional, he sought help from David Leadbetter, Butch Harmon, Bob Torrance and Pete Cowan to acquire the information he needed to build his swing. One of the few coaches he has spoken to in 18 months is Harmon and that was only for a couple of minutes.

“His drives have such a strong flight, carrying almost 300 yards through the air,” Alastair McLean, his caddie, said. “I worked for Monty. I know what good driving is and in full flow Lee is one of the best in the world, long and straight. Most big hitters miss fairways. Lee doesn't.”

Mark Roe, who has improved Westwood's short game, talks of the player's strength of mind. “He was doing what I wanted him to do within 40 minutes,and in the Open Championship,” Roe said. “I was astonished at his adaptability.”

If Westwood, 35, appears contented these days, that is because he is. He owns a 50-acre former stud farm near Worksop, where he has a 330-yard practice ground, three bunkers, each filled with different sand, and five tees and a green built to USGA specification. There is as much chance of winkling Westwood out of Worksop as there is of moving Madonna to Mansfield. “Why would he want to move to be near Heathrow?” Chandler asked. “He'd have no friends and he's the sort of person who goes to the 40th birthday party of a mechanic from a local garage. He loves anonymity. Darren Clarke does his hair, puts on a suit and a cashmere overcoat when he goes to a football match. Lee goes in jeans and a hoody and if no one notices him, he's happy.

“He's got the best house of any golfer. It's got everything: woodland, Shetland ponies, a gym. He's about my closest friend and I am one of his. I call him Lee John and he calls me Chubby, not The Fat Controller as Ernie [Els] does.”

Westwood and Laurae, his wife and the sister of Andrew Coltart, have two children, Sam, 7, and Poppy, 4 last week. John Westwood, not normally given to flights of fancy, believes the first word that Poppy spoke was “chocolate” and the other day was heard to say the words “Vanish Oxy Action”.

Roy Case, a leading Nottinghamshire and English Golf Union official, remembered Westwood's clear-mindedness as a teenager. “He was on a coaching course we organised and was asked by a psychologist to write down what he wanted to achieve,” he said. “Many of them said things like, 'To play Walker Cup' and 'To appear in a Ryder Cup'. Lee didn't. He wrote, 'To be the best'. And I suppose he has got quite close to it, hasn't he?”

From Worksop to Valhalla

Born 24.4.1973, Worksop, Nottinghamshire.

Educated Valley School, Worksop.

Wife Laurae, two children: Sam and Poppy.

Likes watching sport on television

Football team supported Nottingham Forest

Dislikes reading. Says he has never finished a book in his life.

Ryder Cup appearances 1997, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2006. Singles: W2 L3. Halved 0. Foursomes: W6 L2 H2. Fourballs: W6 L3 L1