IT’S time to get down to business here at the Solheim Cup. A couple of years ago, Juli Inkster, the captain of the USA , dished out lunch boxes to her players as a symbolic gesture which illustrated the kind of blue-collar, workmanlike ethic she wanted to instil in her troops.

This week, Inkster has taken that theme a tad further and has presented each team member with a hard hat. At this rate, the Americans will be taking to the tee with a couple of lengths of scaffolding and a brick hod.

Build it and they will come remains a well-worn phrase from that Iowa-based film, Field of Dreams, and here in the Hawkeye State they are certainly marching forth.

They are expecting record crowds at Des Moines this week in what will no doubt be a hooting, hollering, flag-waving frenzy of high-fives, fist pumps and the kind of heated histrionics not seen since Icarus flapped himself into an appalling lather.

Everybody has been poring over current form, past experience and potential pairings as eager observers try to pinpoint an area where one team can get one over on the other.

Some say, for instance, that Team Europe has too many rookies – four – for a daunting outing on American soil. Then again, the visitors had six new recruits in the line-up in Colorado in 2013 and recorded an emphatic 18-10 victory as they won for the first time in American territory.

It’s all to play for over the next three days and all and sundry are trying to do their bit to aid their respective causes. Kathryn Imrie remains a well-kent name in the Scottish women’s scene even if the US has been her home for a long time.

“I’m a pure California girl now but I still miss Scotland and you can’t take Dundee out of the girl,” said the 50-year-old with a smile. We should have brought her the Oor Wullie annual to keep those home fires burning.

It’s 21 years since Imrie made her one and only appearance in the Solheim Cup at St Pierre back in 1996 but the biennial battle continues to stir her senses like no other golfing occasion.

“I’ve always said this event is the best stage for women’s golf,” said the former LPGA Tour champion. “Yes we have the Olympics as well now but this has the passion, the fire and the emotions that people want to see.”

At a time when the women’s circuit in Europe is struggling, there is a sense that a victory here this weekend could provide a much-needed injection of vigour and new investment. “If we had something like this every week then people would want to see women’s golf,” added Imrie. “Imagine how it would help the Ladies European Tour?”

Imrie doesn’t have an official role in the European camp this week but she is very much involved. “I guess I’m just here to try to keep the girls relaxed in the locker room,” said this golfing minister without portfolio.

“At St Pierre I remember going in the team room after we hadn’t done so well on the first morning and putting on some loud music to gee everybody up. I’m trying to keep the players loose because they are tense, no matter what they say. This week is all about getting together and gelling and I think we’re doing that.”

Imrie partnered the current European captain Annika Sorenstam in that 1996 event and the Scot remains a huge admirer of the Swede’s approach. “She’s very analytical and she’s a born leader,” she noted.

As for Imrie’s old sparring partner Catriona Matthew? Well, the respect and admiration is unwavering. Having been given a late call-up following the injury-induced withdrawal of Suzann Pettersen the other day, Matthew will make her ninth appearance in the transatlantic tussle.

“Catriona and the Solheim Cup is a match made in heaven,” said Imrie

Matthew’s coach, Kevin Craggs, will certainly vouch for that. Craggs also fine tunes the game of Matthew’s Solheim Cup team-mate, Mel Reid, and the Englishman, who was a former national coach of Scotland’s female amateurs, is quietly confident that the Europeans can rise to the occasion and wrestle the cup out of the US clutches.

“There is a definite determination in there,” he said. “They are here to bring the trophy back. Catriona is a massive presence and she will embrace this better than anyone.”

With foursomes and fourballs getting things going today, it;s time for Europe and the US to embrace that challenge.