SAINT-QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France — In one of the stranger press conferences of the week at Le Golf National ahead of the Ryder Cup, Team USA member Bubba Watson raised eyebrows Wednesday when he spoke into the microphone with a noticeably raspy voice.

Watson said he was working through a bug he caught during the Tour Championship last week in Atlanta.

“You can tell, my voice, I'm exhausted. A lot of us were kind of getting sick,” he said. “I don't want to say not quite half the field had something, and then you know, traveling all the way over here, we're all battling something.”

During a week were everyone is tight-lipped about their strategy for the tournament, the potential for a team-crippling virus in the U.S. locker room isn't easy to ignore. Watson was pressed and eventually dodged the question.

“It was just — really, there was a few guys that aren't over here (who got sick) and guys that are over here. You know, it kind of started through the locker room last week — there's only 30 guys. So just I happened to get it. I've got a weak immune system.”

If Team USA and captain Jim Furyk are lucky, Watson will be the only American using this week to both learn a tough golf course and battle illness. Though it is fitting Watson credited the team’s 2016 performance (a win at Hazeltine in which he was a vice captain) to his not being on the team.

“I learned that the team is a lot better without me as a player. I've never won one, but as a vice captain, we won. So I'm taking it that I helped win,” he said.

If this mystery bug really is a cause for concern, Team USA may go another Ryder Cup without trotting Watson onto the course.