GRAEME McDOWELL describes this week's Quinn Insurance British Masters at The Belfry as "back to reality".
From the high of his Ryder Cup debut, disappointing though the end result was, McDowell's focus now returns to climbing further up the world rankings and Order of Merit.
"The Ryder Cup is something we work very hard for and I was never really goin
g to be able to focus on much else," said the Ulsterman. "Now it's out of the way I have to look towards the end of the season.
"The atmosphere was electric, like nothing I've ever experienced before. You have 12 guys pulling for each other chasing one unique goal.
"As soon as the golf started the weekend was a bit of a blur. I remember sitting at the closing ceremony thinking it was the fastest three days of my life.
"I'm sure it will be a bit of a comedown this week, but it's a tournament I wanted to play and in a funny way not winning the Ryder Cup will probably make it easier to put it behind and move on.
"I want to put a shine on what's been a really good season and finish on a high note."
McDowell won two games, halved one and lost one at Valhalla.
"I was very satisfied personally with the way I handled the pressure. The standard of golf blew me away. Myself and Padraig (in the Friday fourballs), I think we were ten under par and got beat," he added.
"There's no doubt I'll take the positives out of last week and hopefully it will stand by me on a Sunday afternoon somewhere in the future, hopefully in a major.
"I really got to ask a lot of questions of myself and I felt like I answered them."
The 29-year-old from Portrush, who believes the American victory is "probably good for the future of the Ryder Cup", said the stand-out speech in the team room came not from captain Nick Faldo, but from assistant Jose Maria Olazabal on the Saturday night.
"He was fantastic, inspirational, pretty emotional. It was a call to arms if you like," he said. "He was just talking about how much he loved to be sitting there as one of the 12, how he had seen us come up through the ranks and how he has 12 great champions sitting in front of him.
"To have a guy like that sort of really trying to fire you up, it was pretty cool."
As for Faldo, some of whose decisions have now been questioned by Colin Montgomerie, McDowell added: "There were certainly some good chats.
"Faldo was well prepared. He had done his homework and he really gave us some good stuff to work with as well.
"Should he come in for criticism? No, not at all. If the guy wins he's a hero and if he loses he's the villain. We made decisions as a team and I think every player down to the last man thought he was a good captain.
"It was a privilege to play under him."
Montgomerie's main point yesterday was that Harrington, Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter at 12th, 11th and 10th in the singles line-up made it possible they would not be able to influence the outcome.
"The line-up of the singles was very important being 9-7 down. Very important. It had to be absolutely bang-on right," said the Scot, an armchair critic for once after not being given a wild card.
"If they had been playing higher up they absolutely would have been included in the shake-up of what happened."
Faldo's successor will be discussed by the players' committee next week in Scotland, but a decision is not expected until January.
Montgomerie, expected to do the job in 2014, is on that committee and said it would be "a shame" if compatriot Sandy Lyle is not chosen.
