Danny Willett has been forced to apologise for his brother's comments about American golf fans ahead of this week's Ryder Cup, after he labelled them a "braying mob of imbeciles".

Pete Willett wrote an article published in the National Club Golfer magazine taking aim at American fans and went on to detail what  exactly each side needs to do to secure the victory.

"For the Americans to stand a chance of winning, they need their baying mob of imbeciles to caress their egos every step of the way," he said. "Team Europe needs to shut those groupies up."

The article made it's way to Danny and Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke who commented: "The fans could not have been nicer and better to us this week - hopefully that continues. The article was beyond our control and Danny is bitterly disappointed himself. I will let him deal with it between siblings.

"I was obviously very disappointed in it as well, because that's an outside person expressing their opinion which is not representative of what our thoughts are."

Speaking ahead of the beginning of the tournament tomorrow, Danny Willett took the opportunity to put the matter to bed.

"I'd just like to apologise obviously to everyone involved for what's been said," he told Golf Channel.

"It's obviously not the thoughts of myself and of the team and of captain Darren. I spoke to him (Pete) on the phone after I was made aware of what was said and what has been going on.

"And I said to Pete that I was obviously disappointed in what was said and what was written about the American fans that obviously took me under their wing fantastically back in April (at the Masters)."

He finished by saying that he had apologised in person to the US captain, Davis Love III: "He took it very well and I think he's drawn a line under it for himself and for the team. So hopefully everyone else can do the same and hopefully we can get on and have a great tournament."

Among the comments made in the article (which you can read in full by clicking here) were: "I’m realistic enough to admit that I will struggle to resist the occasional capitalised tweet (I’ll keep the syllable count low for the sake of the dim Yanks). But it will be far more effective if it is the European players that do all the talking.

"Darren Clarke needs to pick his pairs carefully, they need to support each other intelligently, and the crowd needs to be dealt with swiftly.

"If these things happen, Europe will win, and I’ll try to support gracefully by embracing the same sense of fair-mindedness that has permeated this unbiased article. If not, the Americans will claim their second victory this century… those fat, stupid, greedy, classless, bastards."