All around him, in the players' locker room of Augusta National, the cleaners were busy putting whatever leftovers were strewn on chairs into clear plastic bags. In the corner, Padraig Harrington seemed oblivious to it all, scrolling through a computer, analysing and consuming the statistics, one of which showed him to be first in putting averages in the 71st Masters. A first, but not the one he wanted; they don't give green jackets for topping a list of statistics.
Harrington's seventh-place finish behind Zach Johnson, the first player from outside the world's top 50 to win the Masters since the official rankings started 21 years ago, was not to be sniffed at, however.
What the 35-year-old Dubliner had learned most from this Masters, the 35th major appearance of his career, was that his game is definitely good enough to win it.
"Obviously, as I said at the start of the week, I felt I needed things to go my way (to win) but, to be honest, I was more capable than I had realised," he admitted.
Of his quest for a green jacket, which led to aggressive plays coming in, Harrington said, "I felt like I had the chance and I went after it. At the end of the day I had no interest in finishing second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth or seventh."
Winning was all he had on his mind.
He added, "Of course I'll be going home thinking, 'What if?' But I'll also be going home knowing I don't have to change anything to win one of these things. It is not outside the realms of my imagination to win one. I don't have to go home (thinking) I have to rebuild my golf swing and get to be a better player to win one of these."
Indeed, when Harrington followed up his birdie on the 12th by eagling the 13th, he was just two shots off the lead. Yet again, though, the 15th hole proved his Waterloo.
Unlike his play in the first and third rounds, when he put the ball in the lake there after laying up, Harrington's hybrid-club approach of 236 yards on Sunday looked for all the world the perfect shot - only to fall a foot short of where it needed to land, running back down the bank instead of being propelled forward.
"Unfortunately," he said, "my Masters finished with probably my best shot of the week. It could have finished stone dead, but that's Augusta. It works out for the winners and the losers are left to rue a few chances missed.
"When it was in the air, it never crossed my mind it would be short and I am actually looking at it in the air and thinking, 'I hope it sticks when it hits the green so it doesn't release'."
That subsequent bogey on the 15th meant Harrington was five over in the tournament for that one hole. He finished seventh, four shots behind Johnson, who had two shots to spare over tied-second Tiger Woods, Retief Goosen and Rory Sabbatini. If only, if only!
"When I look back on the tournament, there's the positive that I know I am capable of doing it," he said. "And the other positive is that I've again got myself into position, and that's very important.
"I know I have to be patient and wait for it to be my day. But if I give myself plenty of chances, I'll have more than one day.
"I'm looking forward to the other majors this year and, also, to coming back here. I felt very comfortable, just as I did in last year's US Open (at Winged Foot). I didn't walk away from anywhere (at Augusta) thinking I haven't got the ability to play the shots."
Although he would like to carry the momentum of the Masters into another week, Harrington now takes a two-week break before a run that starts with the Wachovia Championship on the US Tour, followed by the Players Championship at Sawgrass, the Irish Open at Adare Manor and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
"I have things to work on (during the break), but it is all good," he said. "I am very positive that my game held up during the week and that I got into a situation that I did compete, and that's the most important thing when I turn up at these events.
"There will be plenty of majors again when I turn up and I won't be in the hunt, but it is a positive for me to know that I can turn up and get myself in that position. As you see with a lot of majors, once you're in that position, you never know what is going to happen."
He need look no further than Johnson, the newest major champion, to know that is true. Harrington first came across Johnson when the two went head-to-head down the stretch in the BellSouth Classic in 2004, when Johnson won his first - and, until Sunday, only - US Tour event.
"He's a good player, a lovely guy, and I'm delighted to see him win," said Harrington. "It's great to see a new name winning a major, and that's always a positive."
The course played its hardest since undergoing major changes in 2001, resulting in Johnson's winning total of 289, one over, matching the previous highest totals: Jack Burke's in 1956 and Sam Snead's in 1954.
The only other player not to beat par on the way to winning a Masters was Jack Nicklaus in 1966; he won with even par. But that shouldn't bother Johnson, who held his nerve and stuck rigidly to a game-plan that saw him lay up on all the par fives. It was a winning strategy; he finished 11 under for the par fives.
