European captain Darren Clarke has played in five Ryder Cups, assisted as vice captain two other times and lost only once in those many years.
"Lots of memories, too many to mention," he said. "The Ryder Cup has been a very special part of my career. I've been in lots of them and been around a lot of them. They're all very, very different. Each one has their special moments."
Well, there was this one …
Ten years ago this month, Clarke stood on the first tee at Ireland's K Club, thunderous sound and raw emotion swirling all around him, last pairing off early that Friday morning representing Europe for the fifth, and turns out, final time at a Ryder Cup.
All of it only six weeks after his wife, Heather, died following a two-year fight with breast cancer.
He'd win the British Open five years later, but to this day Clarke remembers that morning against an American team captained by Tom Lehman as one unlike any other in his career.
"I didn't know if I was going to miss it, top it, duff it, whiff it, shank it, hook it, block it, whatever, even with a driver," he said. "I genuinely had no idea where the ball was going to go. I got lucky and made contact, and it went straight down the middle. That's the most nervous I've ever been on a golf course. I have no idea how I managed to do that."
By his own recollection, the ball traveled 320 yards down the fairway while the European crowd roared and playing partner Lee Westwood and Westwood's caddie cried.