FORGET the million-dollar-plus prize money, the subsequent multi-millions in endorsements and the all-round guaranteed lifetime of admiration from one's peers and adulation from hackers all over the world.
The real perk that comes with winning a major, at least if you're an American, is the customary TV appearance with late night chat show host David Letterman.
Stewart Cink's turn came on Tuesday night when the newly minted Open champion, fresh from his shameless four-hole play-off mugging of defenceless old man Tom Watson, was summoned from the wilds of Turnberry to the Ed Sullivan Theatre on Broadway in New York City.
There, as a prelude to actor Kevin Spacey and a reality TV star called Jesse James, Cink proudly celebrated his first major victory by appearing as a guest on the CBS network's Late Show with David Letterman.
Cink's task was to read the nightly and mildly amusing top 10 list, on this evening entitled “Top Ten Surprising Facts about Stewart Cink”.
Aside from making Letterman appear exceedingly amusing, the Late Show's staff of writers are obliged to provide the night's top 10 list guest with, well, 10 reasonably comic lines to read to a nationwide audience of insomniacs, me included.
On Cink's watch there were the usual duds: “I forgot my clubs so had to putt with my shoe”? I rest my case.
But there were funny ones - “Most people think I sell plumbing supplies,” said Sink, sorry, Cink – and some even funnier. Take number six, for instance: “I called Tiger Woods last night. I laughed and I hung up.” Not exactly comedy gold but we'll take it. Number one on the list, though, was, as they say in these parts, a home run.
“Even I was rooting for Tom Watson,” read Cink with the broadest of grins, no doubt with more than half a mind on those impending endorsement deals.