Rory McIlroy reveals he has been working with sports psychologist Bob Rotella following first win in 18 months

The Holywood star did not have his A-game at Quail Hollow but he still had the mental strength to card a three-under 68 and win his 19th PGA Tour title by a shot from Abraham Ancer on nine-under par, giving him a massive boost ahead of next week’s PGA Championship.

"It's okay telling yourself mentally be strong and mentally play with freedom, but if you know you can't make a swing to hit a fairway, so you need to get the technical part right and then you can dial in the mental," said McIlroy, who halted his slide down the world ranking by leaping from 15th to seventh. "That's sort of the process that I've been on.

"I've spent some time with Bob Rotella over the last couple of months, but Pete Cowen would always be saying, 'If I don't do my job right, Bob can't do his job right'.

"So Pete has to do his right and then Bob can take it from there."

McIlroy worked with Rotella, the mental guru who guided Pádraig Harrington to three major wins and Darren Clarke to the 2011 Open, back in 2010 as he bid to improve his putting routine.

At the time he said: "I've read all of his books over the years and find what he says really interesting and appealing.

"I think this could make a couple of shots' difference in tournaments and hopefully turn my top-threes and top-fives into wins. If that happens, it'll be a very worthwhile exercise."

The relationship didn't last but after going back to Rotella recently and calling in Pete Cowen to give him a fresh perspective on his technique, he'll be looking to push on and end his near seven-year wait for a fifth Major win, starting in next week's PGA Championship at Kiawah Island, where he won his second Major by eight strokes in 2012.

"(Pete) deserves a good bit of credit for it, for sure," added McIlroy. "Obviously Michael Bannon is the one that's got me all the way to this point, so I'm never going to mention Pete without Michael because Michael deserves a lot of credit, too.

"But the work that Pete and I have done over the last few weeks again, going back to the last question, today under pressure I had a couple of things to fall back on, which was really important, especially under pressure.

"Needing to hit good shots down the stretch, I had a couple of very playable swing thoughts that I've had all week.

"And Pete and I did some good work last week in Florida and I felt good about my game coming in here. Obviously I wasn't expecting to come and win first week straight out again.

"It's satisfying to see the work is paying off, but it's just the start. There's so much more I want to achieve and so much more I want to do in the game. But this is, as I said, it's nice validation that I'm on the right track."

As for next week's second Major of the season, he said: "This victory's very important going into Kiawah in a couple weeks' time. 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 re-familiarise myself with the layout a little bit.

"But yeah, 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 mean, 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."