Padraig Harrington has set his sights on playing in the next Ryder Cup following his victory in the Portugal Masters.
The Irishman, a vice-captain for Europe at the 2014 and 2016 Ryder Cups, said in the immediate aftermath of the 17-11 defeat at Hazeltine last month that he wanted to play at Le Golf National in Paris in 2018.
And the three-time major winner repeated his desire to play in his seventh Ryder Cup after chalking up his first European Tour victory since 2008 at Vilamoura on Sunday.
"With the Ryder Cup, Paul McGinley kind of changed the parameters. It took three-and-a-half years out of his life," Harrington told Sky Sports News HQ. "It certainly took two years out of Darren Clarke's playing career. I want to be a player. If I go for the captaincy nobody is going to give me back the 45th and 46th years in terms of my playing career.
"It's a huge sacrifice and as much as I would love to be Ryder Cup captain, selfishly I want to be a golfer. I want to compete and win tournaments so I'm going to push it down the road.
"Hopefully I will get an opportunity down the road. At the moment I am focused on playing. Whether it's a reality or not or whether it's a possibility, in my head I am going to make the Ryder Cup team in 2018."
Denmark's Thomas Bjorn, who has been a vice-captain on four occasions, is the favourite to be appointed captain by a panel made up of the three most recent skippers - Clarke, McGinley and Jose Maria Olazabal - European Tour chief
executive Keith Pelley and players' committee representative Henrik Stenson.
A decision is expected later this year or in early 2017.