SUTTON COLDFIELD, England (PA) -- Graeme McDowell will go into next year's major championships with renewed self-belief and confidence after his impressive Ryder Cup debut in Valhalla.

McDowell won 2 ½ points from his four matches in Kentucky, including a nerve-racking 18th hole win with Ian Poulter in Saturday's four-balls and victory over Stewart Cink in Sunday's singles.

It was not enough to help Europe to a fourth straight victory as the United States won by five points to regain the trophy for the first time since 1999. But there were nothing but positives on a personal level for McDowell.

"I think I am a better player, I think I'll learn a lot from what's happened the last three days," said the 29-year-old Ulsterman. "I'm certainly going to be feeding off the way I handled myself.

"Looking forward to big tournaments and majors, I'm going to be feeding off the way I played today," he added. "I certainly feel like I showed the golfing world I have a little bit extra in there, I have a lot of heart when it comes to the game.

"I've certainly gained a lot of respect from my American peers this week that I played against," he explained. "When it comes to teeing it up against Jim Furyk, Phil Mickelson or Kenny Perry down the stretch on a Sunday afternoon I've stated the case that I've got the game to do things.

"There is no doubt it will make me a better player going forward."

McDowell admitted he even surprised himself with how well he played amid an electric atmosphere.

"I honestly thought I was going to be a lot more nervous than I was," added McDowell, who was 19th in the British Open and 15th in the PGA Championship this year. "I was really happy the way I handled things.

"My play certainly exceeded my expectations a little bit as well, which was nice," he said. "I was involved in four fantastic games, and it was great to play with Padraig (Harrington) in my first game.

"I was kind of glad I didn't get a game on Friday morning, maybe I would have been a little more of a rabbit in the headlights," he admitted. "But when it came to Friday afternoon, I felt like I was ready to go and had sampled the atmosphere. It was noisy and loud but it was fun as well, I enjoyed it."

McDowell's victory over Cink turned out to be irrelevant with the home side reclaiming the points they needed in the first eight matches. That inevitably prompted criticism of Nick Faldo's decision to leave Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Padraig Harrington until the last three singles matches, but McDowell was quick to defend his captain.

"I'm disappointed my match didn't really come to a crunch point. I was hoping that it was going to," he added. "Nick's going to be criticized for the way he put his team out, but I thought we were strong up front and strong at the rear and we weren't trying to hide anybody.

"We all sat down as a team when we put that line up together. People said 'I wanted to play here or there,' 'I want to lead us out,' Padraig said he wanted a mean, nasty game," McDowell said. "I don't think any criticisms are needed of the team lineup. We stacked the front and the rear.

"Captains live and die by their decisions," he said. "He could have been a hero with that. He's going to turn out the villain, but unnecessarily."

Copyright 2008 PA Sport. All rights reserved.