Once you've dined on the finest of fare, you don't want to go back to nibbling on a tin of bully beef.

Gleneagles is renowned for dishing up some five-star nosh but the Perthshire resort got its own taste of the good life with a spectacularly successful staging of the 40th Ryder Cup.

The Europeans won, the crowds were vast and the weather was kind. It was the perfect stage. But where do you go from here?

The 'after the Lord Mayor's Show' effect is something Alex Salmond, the First Minister for a wee bit yet, is keen to avoid. The Johnnie Walker Championship, a firm fixture on the European Tour in its various guises for some 15 years, may return to the schedule but Salmond knows the bar has now been raised. It will be a long, long time before another Ryder Cup comes back to these shores but perhaps a lucrative World Golf Championship event could fit the bill for a resort that has its eyes on sizeable prizes.

"This [Gleneagles] is the most coveted, the most wonderful, the most presented golf property on the planet right now," he said as the Ryder Cup bandwagon prepared to rumble out of town.

"This has been the pinnacle, but we have to move on. I will be having discussions with the Tour about successive events here. The Johnnie Walker has been a fine tournament. I have presented the trophy to Thomas Bjorn, to Paul Lawrie, but this place needs something more than that now. This is not a place for a normal European tournament any more. Whatever it is, it has to be high level.

"There is much more competition for the Ryder Cup now. If you go back 40 years ago, there was a time when nobody wanted the Ryder Cup and it had almost become a burden. It is changed days now. Everybody and their auntie will now want to present the Ryder Cup.

"It won't come back in quick order but there is no doubt that what we did last week means people will know this is the place. It is important that Gleneagles uses the platform for a very special golf tournament, something which is not just another tour event."

It was back in 2001 that Scotland was unveiled as the host of the 2014 Ryder Cup. They lost out to Wales for the 2010 contest but that has turned into a sizeable gain. "Let's give a bit of credit here; Henry McLeish was the First Minister who secured the Ryder Cup," added Salmond, a dab hand with the clubs himself and a keen supporter of golf in his homeland.

"He got panned for it by less-informed journalists that he hadn't got it for four years earlier. In hindsight it was the best thing that could have happened because this Ryder Cup is worth twice, three times what it was four years ago.

"As for investment in golf, this is not an indulgence. It's not a personal fascination about me liking golf and therefore golf is part of the Scottish Government's objectives. If we're going to have big events, let's have big events that we're good at.

"With the best will in the world, Scotland is not at any time soon going to host a Formula One race, because we'd have to build a track for an amazing amount of money and then we'd have to pay an amazing amount of money to get it. This is something we're good at. We're good at hosting events as we've proved this year in spades. And we have the best golf courses in the world, and the history of the game. The investment side is really important. It's not a frippery, it's something central to the government's objectives."

A key part of these objectives has been the development of the Clubgolf programme, the junior initiative that was formed as part of the successful Ryder Cup bid and one that continues to flourish. Last week, a further £1m was injected into a scheme that has allowed over 350,000 youngsters to experience the game.

Salmond may have lost the referendum but that other Yes/No vote in Scotland went the right way as the Royal & Ancient said a long overdue 'aye' to women members. As part of Salmond's all-embracing vision for golf, it was a timely tonic.

"Peter Dawson [the R&A chief executive] is now an idol of mine," said Salmond with a smile. "He's the man who actually delivered a Yes vote. I thought we did quite well to get 45 per cent but that Dawson guy gets 85 per cent. Seriously, though, I've always believed golf has to be a game for everyone. We have to embrace that."

It would seem this embrace has also been extended to a certain Donald Trump. Or should that be the other way around? "Donald has this habit of sending me articles which have him saying nice things about me and he writes over them 'very true' in big black pen," said Salmond of the American tycoon who added Turnberry to his burgeoning golfing portfolio earlier this year.

"I can only welcome this rapprochement as we move forward. This game is bigger than me . . . it is even bigger than Donald."