Nick Faldo found himself involved in ’sandwichgate’ at the Ryder Cup today - after being caught on camera with an important-looking piece of paper.

Four months after two British government ministers were left red-faced after documents taken to a Downing Street briefing were photographed, Faldo found himself answering questions about whether some of his secrets were out two days before the start of the action at Valhalla.

The paper had pairings on them - Sergio Garcia and Lee Westwood, then Padraig Harrington and Robert Karlsson.

Underneath them were the initials of Justin Rose, Ian Poulter, Graeme McDowell and Paul Casey, then on the next line Oliver Wilson, Soren Hansen and Miguel Angel Jimenez. Henrik Stenson’s name was missing.

Faldo was on the course talking to players and holding the paper when he was alerted by his son Matthew: “Dad, they can see you.”

When asked to explain, Faldo said: “It just had the lunch list. It had sandwich requests for the guys, just making sure who wants the tuna, what wants the beef, who wants the ham.

“So that’s all it was, sandwich list.”

When pressed on the matter, though, Faldo came up with a different answer.

“I haven’t put numbers next to them yet, have I? We don’t know what order they will go out, so some are safe,” he contended.

“And that was on the seventh tee. If the photographer was on the 13th or 14th it all changed, so it’s all different now.”

Then came a question about the missing Stenson.

Faldo said: “He’s on the other side of the piece of paper. The Swedes do it the other way around.

“No, it’s tomorrow’s pairings. Okay, I’ve been caught - I learned a lesson. You know the pairings and we are going to play foursomes on the front nine.”

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