Catriona Matthew has been named captain of Europe's Solheim Cup team for 2019 and says that it will be a dream come true as she leads the team in pursuit of a hat-trick of victories on Scottish soil.
Matthew made her ninth appearance as a player at Des Moines Golf and Country Club in Iowa last month, having originally served as an assistant captain to Annika Sorenstam.
The 48-year-old Scot switched roles at the last minute after Suzann Pettersen withdrew through injury and won three points from four matches to take her career total to 22, third on the all-time list behind Laura Davies (25) and Sorenstam (24).
Matthew's personal heroics proved in vain as the visitors lost by five points to suffer a second straight defeat, but she is now focused on regaining the trophy on the same Centenary Course at Gleneagles where Europe won the 2014 Ryder Cup.
"I was delighted to get the news," Matthew said. "It's a dream come true to be captain and doubly so being captain in Scotland.
"The Solheim has always been one of my favourite weeks and I've been fortunate enough to play in nine. To now have the chance to take on the captaincy is a tremendous honour for me.
"We're going to go there wanting to win and take the cup back from them but personally I'm still going to be playing for the next couple of years and I still have goals of my own on the golf course. But it's definitely the pinnacle of my Solheim career.
"At Dalmahoy [1992] and Loch Lomond [2000] the Europeans won both times so that puts a bit of pressure on me. But I don't think it would matter where it was. You have tremendous pressure on you as captain and as a player. The main thing is to go there and enjoy it.
"I haven't really taken it all in yet but there is a lot to do and I'll need to be super-organised, which is maybe not my strongest point, so I'll have to work on that."
Despite her late change of roles in Iowa, Matthew believes she has gained plenty of experience from this year's event, as well as working under six other captains.
"I was assistant captain for the whole run-up," the former Women's British Open champion added. "It was really just for the last three days that I switched roles. I was probably more of an assistant captain than player for that one.
"You learn things from every captain but, being more involved behind the scenes, you do pick up a lot. It was good to have that and to have a slight idea of what I'm letting myself in for."