Rickie Fowler claimed his maiden PGA Tour title as he won the Wells Fargo Championship in a play-off against DA Points and Rory McIlroy, who went back to the top of the rankings.
The trio finished 14 under for the tournament, one stroke ahead of local boy Webb Simpson, and went into a one-hole play-off at the 18th.
And it was Fowler who came out on top, his birdies bettering the pars of Points and McIlroy, who nevertheless did enough to go back ahead of Luke Donald in the world list.
The 23-year-old American, who won on his 72nd attempt, said: "It's been a wait, but I'm definitely still young, and hopefully this opens the door to many more.
"But it's nice to be mentioned as a PGA Tour winner."
He added: "There's a lot of people that have doubted or said you'll never win. There's all kinds of stuff. So it's nice to kind of shut them up a little bit."
Fowler closed with a three-under-par 69, McIlroy with a 70 and Points a 71.
That it was those three who went into the play-off was down to the struggles of Simpson, who lives within a mile of the Quail Hollow venue and made most of the running this week, but today could only manage a one-over 73.
That put Points in the driving seat, but his first bogey since Friday on the 18th saw him slip back into a three-way tie along with Fowler and McIlroy, who missed a 15-foot birdie putt at the last.
Fowler won the play-off with his second shot from the fairway, which left him around four feet from the hole.
As his rivals managed tricky two-putts for par, Fowler sank his birdie attempt.
The win brought back memories of McIlroy's first Tour win, which came at the same venue two years ago - albeit in more spectacular fashion as he finished with a course-record 62.
Fowler said: "We've always had a great camaraderie, been good buddies. I definitely respect him as a player, and I feel like he respects me as well.
"But I've had a lot of fun playing against him.
"We first played against each other at the Walker Cup in '07, and I look forward to playing against him and hopefully having plenty more tournaments like this where we're battling back and forth and there's going to be times where he's going to come out on top and times where I come out on top.
"I look forward to possibly doing that for a long time."
McIlroy conceded Fowler was a worthy winner.
"I felt like it was a bonus just to get into the play-off after DA bogeyed the last," he said.
"You wouldn't call the 18th today a birdie hole with that pin. For Rickie to go out and play that hole the way he did, he deserved to win."
The Northern Irishman took some solace from his return to the top of the rankings.
"That's nice. It's a little consolation," he said. "I would rather win the tournament, but yeah, it's good.
"I want to try and play well for the next few weeks and try and solidify my spot there at number one and hopefully start by doing that next week and giving myself another chance to win."
England's Lee Westwood, who made the cut by one stroke, finished with a six-under 66, which included a front nine of 30 and an eagle at the par-five seventh, to claim a share of fifth on 11 under alongside Ryan Moore and Ben Curtis.
His compatriot Brian Davis finished with a 70 for a share of ninth, while Scotland's Martin Laird was joint 26th after going one under today.
Collated final round scores and totals, Quail Hollow Club, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States of America
(USA unless stated, par 72):
274 Rickie Fowler 66 72 67 69 (Rickie Fowler won at first play-off hole), D.A. Points 66 68 69 71, Rory McIlroy (NIrl) 70 68 66 70
275 Webb Simpson 65 68 69 73
277 Ben Curtis 69 70 71 67, Ryan Moore 65 70 68 74, Lee Westwood (Eng) 71 72 68 66
278 Nick Watney 68 64 72 74
279 Brian Davis (Eng) 66 74 69 70, Seung-yul Noh (Kor) 68 70 70 71, James Driscoll 71 70 69 69, Jonathan Byrd 69 69 72 69, Jonas Blixt (Swe) 68 73 67 71, Jason Day (Aus) 70 70 69 70
280 George McNeill 70 68 68 74, Robert Garrigus 69 72 68 71, Sean O'Hair 72 69 69 70, John Senden (Aus) 66 68 72 74, David Toms 74 65 70 71, Stewart Cink 65 69 71 75
281 Ben Crane 70 64 73 74, Martin Flores 68 70 71 72, Arjun Atwal (Ind) 68 69 75 69, Geoff Ogilvy (Aus) 71 70 65 75, Hunter Haas 68 68 75 70
282 Phil Mickelson 71 72 68 71, Sung-hoon Kang (Kor) 71 70 70 71, Kevin Stadler 68 74 70 70, Jim Furyk 71 71 71 69, Martin Laird (Sco) 72 70 69 71, Will Claxton 71 72 70 69
283 Spencer Levin 72 68 70 73, Billy Mayfair 67 71 73 72, Heath Slocum 69 67 75 72, Ken Duke 72 71 72 68, Roberto Castro 68 72 72 71, Camilo Villegas (Col) 71 70 69 73, Josh Teater 69 73 71 70, Patrick Reed 66 74 69 74
284 Brendon De Jonge 67 73 72 72, Chad Campbell 72 71 72 69, John Merrick 70 68 74 72, Richard H. Lee 70 69 69 76, Rocco Mediate 68 69 75 72, Tommy Gainey 68 72 69 75
285 Carl Pettersson (Swe) 69 72 70 74, Troy Matteson 74 69 70 72
286 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 71 67 73 75, Brendan Steele 71 72 71 72, Jeff Overton 68 71 70 77, Dicky Pride 69 72 73 72, Jimmy Walker 69 73 73 71
287 Hunter Mahan 73 68 75 71, Ryuji Imada (Jpn) 69 72 72 74, Tom Gillis 73 68 69 77, Kevin Chappell 72 71 71 73
288 Chris Kirk 75 67 73 73, Gary Christian (Eng) 73 70 74 71, Brian Harman 67 74 72 75, J J Henry 73 69 71 75, J.B. Holmes 71 71 69 77, Sang-moon Bae (Kor) 69 69 77 73, Andres Romero (Arg) 70 71 73 74, Cameron Tringale 69 74 70 75
289 Aaron Baddeley (Aus) 69 73 75 72, Marc Leishman (Aus) 75 67 74 73, David Hearn (Can) 70 72 76 71, Johnson Wagner 71 66 74 78
290 Zach Johnson 70 71 77 72, Kyle Reifers 70 72 69 79, Brandt Jobe 72 70 73 75
292 Gavin Coles (Aus) 72 71 75 74
293 Alexandre Rocha (Bra) 68 75 73 77
294 Harris English 70 72 77 75
