Graeme McDowell believes that course selection and Thomas Bjørn's assured captaincy were crucial factors in Europe's stunning Ryder Cup triumph.
Europe beat a highly fancied United States team by 17.5 to 10.5 at the challenging Le Golf National in Paris, regaining the trophy they had lost in 2016.
"Coming off the back of Hazeltine and a dominating victory in the Presidents Cup last year, the US steam train was starting to gather some momentum," vice-captain McDowell told RTÉ Sport.
"There's no doubt we felt these guys were going to be a tough team to beat. But we had a great team and a great captain and we also had a golf course that played in our favour a huge amount.
"This golf course is intimidating. It's narrow, it's tough.
"If you compare it to the types of courses that America likes to play their Ryder Cups on, no rough, easy pins birdie-fests, we like to play them on as tough a test as we can possibly get. This may be one of the toughest tests in Europe.
"I think we proved to ourselves that the template of golf courses that we want to play the Ryder Cup on is Paris National. The tougher the better and it suits our guys.
"They were able to handle the nuances and the intimidation of Paris National."
McDowell was one of five deputies to Bjorn, alongside Padraig Harrington, Robert Karlsson, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood.
"Thomas was fantastic," said the Portrush man. "Thomas was a much more low-stress captain than I had imagined.
"He was a high-stress golfer but he was a pretty low-stress captain.
"The teams pretty much picked themselves, the team meetings were easy.
"He didn't over-captain. He was very polished, very organised and he knew what everybody's role was."
Harrington has the support of Rory McIlroy to be Europe's next captain, in Wisconsin. McDowell will be hoping to attend that one as a player, for the fifth time.
However, he admits that if Adare Manor wins the right to host the event in 2026 - 20 years after the K Club became the first Irish venue - he would throw his hat in the ring as a skipper.
"That would be a dream come true. To captain the Ryder Cup in Ireland," said McDowell.
"There a lot of things that are going to play out between now and then but I'm not going to lie, that would be nice."
