If anyone needs a verdict about the excellence of Paul McGinley's Ryder Cup captaincy, the stream of positive messages and tributes bear testament to his work.
It culminated in Europe's resounding success over the USA at Gleneagles this weekend, and in the afterglow of triumph, McGinley spoke to Off The Ball tonight about the lengths he went to in order to deliver victory.
He felt Saturday's afternoon session, which built an ultimately insurmountable four point lead, was the key moment when Europe had one hand on the trophy.
"I knew we had a lot of strength in depth in this team and I knew I could set out the team with wave after wave of attack. I didn't have to hide anybody," he said.
McGinley revealed some of the inner workings of his thinking in terms of picking his team, pairings and order of play. Even as far back as two years ago, the Dubliner knew that Graeme McDowell would be his lead-out man and he spoke about the detailed planning that went into European Tour events.
"When [McDowell] came back to Europe during the summer period to play in European Tour events, I was controlling the draws. Rather than me playing with him - I don't need to know how Graeme McDowell's playing or how he's hitting the ball - I didn't draw myself with any players like that who were probably going to be on the team. When I did draw them, I used to draw them together. I was always knew I needed a senior figure to play with Victor [Dubuisson] and I identified Graeme in that role," said McGinley, who also added that he had known two years ago that McDowell would be the perfect person to tee off the final day singles matches for Europe.
He also explained how he used a cycling analogy to persuade McDowell to play the "father figure" role for the first two days, before moving to the front on the final day.
And he opened up about the impact ex-Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, Dublin manager Jim Gavin and Donegal boss Jim McGuinness had on him in the build up and at the weekend.
McGinley also spoke about the moment when he realised the Ryder Cup captaincy was something he wished to pursue, explaining how it stemmed from the 2009 Seve Trophy captaincy.
He also spoke about giving advice to future captains in an unofficial capacity if he is ever needed.
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