Ian Poulter's autobiography was never going to pull any punches and has already led to the downfall of former PGA of America president Ted Bishop, who was sacked for "insensitive gender-based statements" in response to Poulter's criticism of former Ryder Cup captain Nick Faldo.

And Poulter has also revealed how members of the 2008 teams almost came to blows in the wake of Europe's only defeat this century at Valhalla.

Writing about the aftermath of the five-point loss in Kentucky in his book 'No Limits,' Poulter details what happened when European players visited the US team room after the contest.

"We go up to the US team room and things get a little bit out of hand," Poulter writes. "Everyone has had quite a lot to drink and Lee Westwood and I start messing around with some of the pictures the US boys have pinned up on the walls.

"They are motivational photographs of the players in the US team and Lee and I draw a few things on them.

"There is a picture of Boo Weekley pinned up on the wall and I write 'Who ate all the pies?' on it. Westwood writes something similarly frivolous on a picture of (Steve) Stricker. We are just having a bit of a laugh. But the American boys don't like it. They don't like it at all.

"There is no malice involved, but they think it is disrespectful. A couple of the American players get upset and Boo gets annoyed. They are a bit p***** off and, when you sit back and think about it, probably rightly so. We shouldn't be drawing on their pictures.

"Some of their players start shouting 'You can't do this'. There is a melee. It starts to look a bit dicey. There is a lot of finger pointing and a bit of barging. People are being held back. Some people are trying to calm the situation. Others have lost it.

"Look, if you get 24 emotional lads in a room together at 2am after a really intense, high-pressure week when they've been in each other's faces and desperately trying to win, there's always going to be something going on.

"I don't want to be on the wrong end of it if Boo launches one. He can handle himself I reckon. But it never gets to the stage where there are fisticuffs. We defuse the situation and back off a bit. We decide we ought to go back to our team room.

"Justin Leonard and a couple of the other players come down to have a few drinks with us to show there are no hard feelings and, a little bit later, Boo comes down too. So it isn't like it's a lasting thing. We have a laugh and a bit of a sing-song and try to forget about the fact that the Ryder Cup belongs to America for the next two years."

Poulter is in Shanghai this week for the BMW Masters, the first of the four Final Series events on the European Tour, but the top three players on the Race to Dubai will not be competing at Lake Malaren for different reasons.

Race leader Rory McIlroy is missing both events in China to prepare for his upcoming court case with a former management company, while last year's European number one Henrik Stenson withdrew following the birth of his third child on Sunday.

Sergio Garcia has opted to play the CIMB Classic on the PGA Tour instead, although at least he will play the HSBC Champions and Turkish Airlines Open before the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

In 2013, Garcia did not fulfil the regulation which required players to contest two of the first three Final Series events in order to be eligible to play in Dubai, a regulation strongly criticised by the likes of Ernie Els and one which was quickly scrapped.

Els is due to play both the BMW Masters and the HSBC Champions events, so listening to the needs of the players - or caving in to their demands, depending on your point of view - might have been a wise move by the European Tour.