Sinking a series of pressure putts exactly when he needed to, the Ulsterman won the Honda Classic with a 69 to claim the top spot for the first time in his extraordinary career.

And how poetic that he should have done so on the day that Tiger Woods, the man who made the world No 1 ranking his own, surged back into the headlines with a fabulous final-round 62.

“Enjoy the view,” Luke Donald, the man whom McIlroy deposed in Florida, told his successor. You expect the 22 year-old will do precisely that.

On an evening when it looked as if he would have no genuine challenger, Woods put some vivid colour back into his Sunday red shirt with a birdie-eagle finish to detonate roars all around the PGA National course at Palm Beach Gardens.

McIlroy, though, retained his composure quite brilliantly. He sank an eight-foot birdie putt, before making three critical par saves during the course’s most arduous stretch.