Luke Donald was perfectly suited to his future as he absorbed the magnitude of his latest Ryder Cup victory.
The European captain has tracked the team’s incredible success in Rome by overseeing his first Away Triumph at Bethpage Black on Sunday since 2012.
A narrow margin of 15-13 brought victory in dramatic circumstances after the US threatened to pull away an unlikely comeback.
The hosts were comprehensively outplayed over the first two days, dragging seven points towards the singles, returning to the contest with a string of thrilling victories before Europe finally reached the line.
Like Italy’s victory two years ago, the call for Donald to remain in another term began almost immediately with celebrating the players who chant “a further two years” against their inspirational leaders.
But Donald, already in his place amongst the greats of the competition, was guaranteed, but there was no such commitment.
The 47-year-old also won all four of his performances, but simply said: “My answer will be enjoying tonight!”
Donald accidentally left nothing in preparation for the event, and almost all of his tactical decisions fell apart.
John Rahm, who helped score three points, was one of the players to praise the captain.
“There are a lot of things that are very perfect because Luke is doing it so professionally,” the Spaniard said.
“He is the captain of this ship, and he has guided us better than the one who leads us lead us. He is set very high for the future captain.”
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Donald gave insight into the level of detail he gave at the team’s post-event press conference.
A lot could be done with the virtual reality headset he used to prepare his team for the hostile reception they officially encountered.
However, his plans were deeper, taking into account the bed cover and the smell of shampoo.
He states:
“I’ll give you an example. The door to our hotel room had a big crack that sucked light in. We brought something over the light.
“We put up a variety of shampoos that smell better, and we changed the bedding because the bed wasn’t very good.
“We created a better bed so that everyone could sleep. They could have more energy.”
Rudig Aberg, who defeated Patrick Cantray, was the only European player to win a singles match as the Americans finally found their game to score six full points.
The remaining points in Europe were in half after Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose and Larm’s big guns were all beaten.
The Victor Hofland match against Harris English was declared a draw after the Norwegian was injured and Matt Fitzpatrick held back on the 18th Bryson Deccanbeau.
Shane Lowry sunks a key putt in match number eight to hold Tyrrell Hutton and Robert McIntier cups and even half.