After the ultimate golfing high in the Mile High City, a slightly wabbit Catriona Matthew is slowly coming back down to earth.
Less than a fortnight on from Europe's sparkling Solheim Cup success in Denver, the decorated North Berwick player has returned, via the Women's Canadian Open, to her own backyard of East Lothian for the Aberdeen Asset Management Ladies Scottish Open at Archerfield Links.
"In Denver, we were about 5000 feet above sea level and probably hitting it two clubs further, and in Edmonton last week it was about 2500 feet, so we're gradually getting back to sea level," said Matthew, as she continued to shake off lingering jet-lag ahead of her bid to recapture the Scottish title she won by 10 shots two years ago.
Amid those escapades on the other side of the Atlantic, Matthew celebrated her 44th birthday on Sunday. She ended up in a deep sleep after it but that slumber had nothing to do with a boisterous knees-up. "I had a celebratory sleeping pill to knock me out on the flight home," she added with a smile.
There had been plenty of cause for glass-clinking and merriment a few days earlier, of course. Europe's rampant 18-10 victory over the United States in the Solheim Cup, their first on American soil, was a real eye-opener and gave Matthew another memorable moment in a career packed full of them.
The former women's British Open champion's half-point against Gerina Piller in the singles confirmed outright victory for Liselotte Neumann's team of rampaging rookies, who were led to a historic triumph by the fearless 17-year-old Charley Hull.
"I think the big difference was that our rookies outplayed their rookies," reflected Matthew, the veteran of seven Solheim Cup campaigns who was the calm, wise, experienced hand amid the fist-pumping of youthful exuberance. "I don't think it was a case of having to build their confidence. It was more a case of trying to let them know what it's going to sound like on the first tee. Until you've been there you don't really know what it's like; it is like nothing else. I still get nervous, more so in a team event because there are 11 other players that you can let down. There's an added pressure.
"The more times you've been there it makes that first-tee experience easier. Sometimes it is the unexpected that makes you more nervous but Charley seemed to love it, as did all the other rookies."
Matthew is the only Solheim Cup team member competing in the pro-am contest this week. With a $1.3m purse on offer at the LPGA Tour's Safeway Classic in Oregon, a prize pot of €220,000 here on the Ladies European Tour was never going to be a big enough carrot on a stick. Building on that Solheim success, and generating more sponsorship and prize money on this side of the pond, is the major task facing the European circuit's high command.
"Bigger prize funds are going to attract better fields," added Matthew. "To be honest, I don't think there was any likelihood of any of the other Solheim Cup players coming here. It is a big event in Portland and, unfortunately, a lot of the time it comes down to the size of the purse."
Matthew will be striving to regain the Scottish crown she surrendered to Carly Booth last year. The 21-year-old went on to win a second tour title a month later in Switzerland but has struggled to recapture that form this season and has missed the cut in 11 of her 13 events this term.
In this mind-mangling sport, Booth has enlisted the services of sports psychologist, Andy Duncan, to fine tune her mental approach and help her "get rid of all that doubt in my mind". What her supportive father Wally, the former Commonwealth Games wrestler, will make of all this modern-day psychological stuff is anyone's guess. His homespun philosophies are borne out of good, honest hard work but Booth occasionally turns a deaf ear to her dad's down to earth declarations.
"I stopped listening to him years ago," she joked. "He lives in the 70s. He's always asking about fitness and why you would pay a trainer. He says to get in the gym with his wrestling friends and I say 'I'm not a wrestler'. Maybe his friends would flatten me but it wouldn't help my golf."
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