Ricky Elliott always hoped he could be in the Ryder Cup, the dream of any aspiring golfer from Portrush in Northern Ireland.

He finally got there as a caddie, which is not unusual.

Except that he’ll be working for the other team.

“I’ll be getting plenty of good needle, but it’s all in good fun,” said Elliott, the caddie for American player Brooks Koepka for the last three years. “Whenever I’m out here, I stay with Kenny (Comboy), Billy (Foster) and all the other European caddies because we have the same things in common. I still am European. When it comes down to the matches, might they be a little wary in the team meeting? You just don’t know. But it’s all about getting the cup back to this side of the pond.

“And I’m working for the American team.”

The Ryder Cup is all about the flag, Europe against the United States, three days of frenetic golf and fanatical cheering.

The PGA of America only began keeping records of Ryder Cup caddies in 1995. No European caddie worked for the American team in the last two decades, and no one could think of a European caddie on the American side in the decades before that.

If anything, there are stories of Europeans who didn’t work.

Terry Holt of England worked for Paul Azinger in 1993, but chose not to go with him to the Ryder Cup at The Belfry. Dave Musgrove of England declined to work for Lee Janzen in 1997 at Valderrama, fearing a conflict in interest. “He didn’t want to be in a bad situation. People might wonder about his loyalties,” Janzen said then.