Luke Donald regained top spot in the world rankings in emphatic fashion with a four-shot victory in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.
The reigning champion fired a final round of 68 to finish well clear of compatriot Justin Rose and Scotsman Paul Lawrie and retain his title.
The Englishman's sixth victory in the last 15 months also moves him back above Rory McIlroy, who had missed the cut by no less than eight shots on Friday, in the rankings.
Resuming his final round with a two-shot lead, Donald found himself joined at the top of the leaderboard by Rose just four holes into Sunday's play.
However, the 34-year-old put his foot on the accelerator to go clear once more, producing back-to-back birdies at the sixth and seventh.
Once he had gone three clear with a 25-foot putt at the short 10th, Donald never looked like being caught again. He picked up further shots at the 12th and 15th to take the first prize of almost £600,000 on 15 under par.
"To come and defend and get back to number one is very sweet indeed," Donald said afterwards.
"I was just trying to keep my head down and plug away. I was swinging well and I've putted well all week.
"I just needed to settle down a bit. This is a big week and I felt some of the pressure.
"After the fourth I didn't give him (Rose) another hole where he was teeing
off first other than the 18th. I got the job done.
"I take a great amount of satisfaction. It means I am doing the right things - the hard work is paying off and I have a great team around me."
It was all a far cry from 2011 at the same venue when a play-off was required to see off the challenge of Lee Westwood, with that victory seeing him also take over as world No.1 from the man he had beaten to the title.
Now Donald heads to American soil, playing in the Memorial tournament in Ohio next week as he builds up towards the US Open in San Francisco on June 14-17.
Rose missed a plethora of birdie chances to put pressure on his countryman and ended up signing for a 70, leaving him in a share for second place with Paul Lawrie (66).
Peter Lawrie finished alone in fourth on eight under.
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