Rory McIlroy praised his caddy Harry Diamond's calming advice as the Holywood golfer survived a final hole scare to win the Wells Fargo Championship on Sunday.
McIlroy, looking to end a 553 day winning drought, had a two shot lead lead on the 18th tee at Quail Hollow and knew a bogey would be good enough to win the title.
But the 32-year-old badly hooked his tee-shot and his ball ended up in a deep, sloping lie to the left of a creek running the length of the finishing hole.
McIlroy wanted to try and gouge the ball back onto the fairway, but he was persuaded by Diamond to take a penalty drop instead.
The four-time major champion duly took his caddy's advice and played a brilliant recovery shot onto the green from where he two putted for a one shot victory over Abraham Ancer.
"Harry was awesome out there today, especially that decision on the last," McIlroy said of his caddy and close friend.
"I was ready to get in there and try to play that with a lob wedge and he said 'Let's take a step back, let's think about this. Where's the best place you're hitting your third from?'
"So he calmed me down and slowed me down a little bit, and ultimately we made the right decision and I dropped instead of trying to play that shot out of the hazard. I hit a great third shot onto the green and was able to two-putt from there.
"I think this is our sixth win together and it's probably been our best one. Bay Hill back in 2018 was great because I hadn't won in a while, but this is even better just because Harry's been there every step of the way.
"The tough parts that I've had to endure over the last few months, he's been with me every step of the way and it's nice to come through all that with him and to get into the winner's circle again."
McIlroy also revealed that he was very close to pulling out of the tournament before it even started after suffering a neck injury during his preparations.
"I didn't even think I was going to tee off in this tournament Wednesday night," said McIlroy. "If I had had a morning tee time on Thursday, I probably would have pulled out because I hurt my neck on Wednesday afternoon and couldn't make a backswing.
"But everything just sort of aligned. I was off on Thursday afternoon, I got enough treatment so that I could play and then progressively got a little bit better as the week went on. So it's just amazing how these little things, they all add up."
He added: "I had a really good practice session on the range, hit a three-iron, flushed it and I turned back to talk to Harry. And as I turned, the left side of my neck just completely locked up and I couldn't move it. It was really, really strange.
"So I stopped what I was doing and I went and got some treatment. I iced it all of Wednesday afternoon and Wednesday night. When I woke up Thursday, I didn't have much movement. I was trying to make a backswing and could only maybe take it half the way back before it started to catch.
"As I said, if I had been playing early Thursday morning, I probably would have pulled out, but I had enough time to get treatment Thursday morning and get it loosened up. It was still bothering me on Thursday afternoon, and people probably saw the tape that was on my neck, but it sort of loosened up as the week went on.
"Again, just all these tiny little things that you need to go right to win golf tournaments and thankfully I had an afternoon tee time on Thursday that allowed me to at least tee it up."
A 19th PGA Tour title lifts McIlroy up to seventh in the world rankings, and he will head to next week's PGA Championship fancying his chances on a course - Kiawah Island - where he triumphed by eight shots in 2012.
"Obviously I played really well there last time. I’m honestly not sure whether they’ve made any changes to the golf course since, but I’ll go up there and try to do my homework and refamiliarise myself with the layout a little bit.
"But it’s certainly great timing. This is obviously a huge confidence boost going in there knowing that my game is closer than it has been. I’ll be able to poke holes in everything that I did today, it’s certainly far from perfect, but this one is validation that I’m on the right track."
