The magnitude of the moment had barely begun to register with Paul Azinger as he sat at the decorated dais, the crowd trickling out of the room, his wife at his left elbow and a bottled water in his hand.
His team had just won the 2008 Ryder Cup in demonstrative fashion, ending a run of European dominance that had become a point of embarrassment, if not occasional outrage, to the captains, players and, heck, most of America.
As his victorious team filed out of the press center, Azinger fidgeted with the plastic bottle and faced the inevitable question about signing on for another hitch as captain.