Jack Nicklaus and Justin Rose were among the stars to turn to Twitter to praise Rory McIlroy for his victory at The Players Championship.
McIlroy overcame another poor start and a heavily-congested leaderboard to win golf's most lucrative tournament after a sensational final day at TPC Sawgrass.
The 29-year-old was the last man standing as he held off late charges from Jim Furyk, Eddie Pepperell and Jhonattan Vegas to clinch a one-shot victory and add the gloss to a sensational start to 2019 which had seen him finish in the top six in his first five events without winning.
The victory was McIlroy's first since last year's Arnold Palmer Invitational and he admitted he had drawn on his recent tournament experiences as he overcame a double-bogey at the fourth and then recovered from a bogey at the 14th with birdies at the 15th and 16th and two rock-solid pars at the tricky 17th and 18th.
His two-under 70 was enough to earn him a record cheque for $2.25m, his first title for 53 weeks, and - perhaps more importantly - morale-boosting momentum to take into his latest bid for a career Grand Slam of majors at the Masters next month.
Relive The Open by watching "How The Players Was Won" on Monday from 8pm on Sky Sports The Players.