Henrik Stenson admits he has been "humbled" by the reaction to his stunning Open victory, although not everyone has been so complimentary ahead of this week's US PGA Championship.
Stenson and Phil Mickelson evoked memories of the 'Duel in the Sun' between Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson at Turnberry in 1977 as they went head to head over the final 36 holes at Royal Troon.
A closing 63 equalled the lowest score recorded in a major and gave Stenson his first major title with a record-equalling total of 20 under par, while the 40-year-old Swede's 72-hole total of 264 eclipsed the previous best in any major by a shot.
Five-time major winner Mickelson, who beat Stenson to lift the Claret Jug at Muirfield in 2013, had to settle for second despite a flawless 65 and Nicklaus rated the battle between the pair as "even better" than his showdown with Watson.
"I'm just delighted I managed to win it in the end," Stenson told a pre-tournament press conference at Baltusrol.
"When you hear the words that Jack and Tom and a lot of the best players that have ever played the game are giving us credit for how we played, that's obviously very pleasing and very humbling.
" I was out there playing a practice round today and I don't know how many times I heard people saying that the way we played was the best they have ever seen and so on. That kind of takes a little while for that to sink in, too."
However, any danger of Stenson getting too carried away was quickly ended on the fourth hole of his practice round on Tuesday.
"I had this long putt and left it way short and someone in the stands shouted, 'Does your husband play golf?' Stenson joked. "It shows you you're not up there on that pedestal for very long."
Stenson also only had a week to enjoy his success before preparing for the final major of the year, a week which started with a charity day in Switzerland run by Ryder Cup team-mate Sergio Garcia and included a press conference broadcast live on national radio in Sweden.
"Then I had some time with the family and of course I could every now and again give that Claret Jug a little glare and it brought a grin to my face every time," added the world number five, who said he has so far drunk "champagne, champagne and champagne" from the trophy.
"It 's fantastic. It's a boyhood dream come true and something I wanted to achieve all my life, and then it finally happened. I'm delighted, but at the same time we're in the middle of a big season with the PGA Championship being the last major and then into the Olympics and FedEx Cup and Ryder Cup, and Race to Dubai finish.
"It's still a lot of golf, so we've still got to try and focus on what's ahead. I don't think I'm going to sit back and just say, 'Okay, that was it, I'm finished'.
"It's definitely the icing on the cake. If I look at my career, a major championship was pretty much the only thing I had not managed to achieve and now I have that. But then at the same time, you can look ahead and then try and win another one.
" So I think I've still got a good few years in me and I'm going to try and keep on developing. If you don't, these young guys are going to come up and take over. So I still think I've got a bit of fight in me."
Source: PA
