The European Ryder Cup team and supporters will again hope the luck of the Irish is smiling on them when they head across the pond to defend the trophy next year.
That's because the selection committee who had to choose the next captain have made the unanimous choice to pick Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke for the match at Hazeltine, following the hugely successful stint of Dubliner Paul McGinley who led Europe to a resounding success at Gleneagles last year.
Clarke was selected ahead of Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez and Denmark's Thomas Bjorn, who threw his proverbial hat into the process very late on. Clarke was always the favourite though and the announcement at lunchtime today that he had been given the nod was no surprise.
Jimenez and Bjorn certainly have their credentials and it will be a major shock if one of those two don't get the nod to lead Europe in the 2018 match in France. However, 2016 will be Clarke's time as Europe look to win the trophy for a fourth time in a row.
The selection committee have made the right call for a number of reasons.
Clarke was the players choice and the committee would have been foolish not to listen to the likes of Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose, Ian Poulter and Martin Kaymer who had backed Clarke for the role. They are all more than likely to be lining up at Hazeltine so if Jimenez had been picked, then he would have faced an uphill battle convincing his players that he was the right choice. Poulter and another likely Hazeltine participant Sergio Garcia took to Twitter to congratulate Clarke, showing the standing he has among Ryder Cup stalwarts.
Whilst playing records of Ryder Cup captains is perhaps not such a big issue after McGinley's success at Gleneagles, Clarke's record will stand the test of time. An Open Championship victory in 2011 followed up two World Golf Championship victories, one of which was a World Matchplay win over Tiger Woods in his prime in 2000. Those wins have earned him the respect of golf fans around the world and crucially in America where he is a well-known and popular figure who won't be the subject of abuse by the partisan Hazeltine crowd.
Clarke's Ryder Cup record is also up there with the best having won 10 out of his 20 matches which he played in five straight Ryder Cups between 1997 and 2006, when he was on the winning side four times. Compare that to Jimenez who has won only four of his 15 Ryder Cup matches to date.
And who can forget Clarke's hugely emotional performance at the 2006 Ryder Cup only weeks after he lost his beloved wife Heather. For him to deliver three points out of three was extraordinary and showed his passion for the event, a passion he'll showcase a decade on from that edition at The K Club as captain.
As someone who has been a stalwart of European golf for the last two decades and someone who like McGinley before him has the support of Europe's leading lights, then it's time to pour a pint of Clarke's favourite Guinness and celebrate his appointment.
