Rory McIlroy overcame a horror start and a host of challengers to become just the fourth player in history to defend his title in the Masters.
McIlroy's closing 71 was enough to edge out a charging Scottie Scheffler as the game's two best players filled the first two places, the fairytale challenge of Justin Rose fizzling out along with that of Players champion Cameron Young.
It was McIlroy who had led them all by six entering the weekend and in keeping with a career of permanent brilliance but frequent chaos, he let them past and then passed them again to make it two Green Jackets and six major championships.
Scheffler was level par for the first 36 holes and 11-under for the final 36 but that was one shot too many, the world number one never quite looking like he'd done enough, whereas for Rose this was a chance missed having been on the winning score with eight holes to play.
McIlroy though was a worthy champion, showing a different side to his game and perhaps, some might say, winning without being quite at his best. Perhaps that's a sign of yet more to come in the career of surely Europe's greatest ever golfer.
That though is for another day and for now the numbers put him 12th on the all-time list alongside Sir Nick Faldo, Phil Mickelson and Lee Trevino, with Arnold Palmer's tally of seven now within sight.
McIlroy survives serious test
On this day last year, McIlroy finally ended his 11-year wait to become a career Grand Slam champion and earn a first Green Jacket when defeating Justin Rose in a play-off, so by comparison this was something of a picnic.
But McIlroy seldom does things simply these days and a double-bogey at the fourth followed by a bogey at the sixth saw him surrender his lead as Rose began his latest charge to the top of the Masters leaderboard.
Rose, twice a play-off loser at Augusta, birdied four holes in five to the turn but was gobbled up by Amen Corner, dropping shots at the 11th and 12th and then three-putting for par at the 13th as the wind left his sails.
And it was the same famous stretch which saw McIlroy wrestle back control, first with a gorgeous wedge into the par-three 12th for an eight-foot birdie and then with a slightly longer putt at the 13th to reach 13-under par, the only player all week to do so.
That afforded McIlroy the ability to play short and safe to the 14th but there was genuine alarm at the 15th when his wedge third shot barely made it past the false front; perhaps one or two yards less and there would have been echoes of his horror approach to the 13th hole a year earlier.
A deft two-putt there kept McIlroy two ahead of Scottie Scheffler, the American unable to birdie the 17th hole and apply real pressure then forced to accept par at the last as well, which meant McIlroy had a cushion for the final three holes.
At the 16th he went long to leave a chip shot reminiscent of Tiger Woods in 2005, McIlroy's less spectacular but nevertheless brilliant and enough to earn a tap-in par, before another missed green at the 17th again saw him lean on his wedge work to get up and down.
McIlroy headed to the 18th knowing five would win and, everything altogether calmer than the year before, he took all five of them, winning by one to move on to six career majors, equal to that of European golfing legend Faldo.
It's Faldo who had been the only player in history to successfully defend this title at the first time of asking before McIlroy came along and showed another side to his brilliance. Resolute following Saturday's setback and a poor start to Sunday's final round, calm when left with a clear task ahead, he was in the end a convincing winner.
It's fitting that the fourth player ever to defend this was McIlroy, given the names of Woods, Faldo and Jack Nicklaus before him, and he will have the opportunity to do something none of them managed and land a three-year hat-trick next year.