Rory McIlroy said he would rather have a year like 2018, which has seen him find consistency but has been short on tournament victories, than a mediocre season punctuated by a one-off win at a Major championship.
The Down-born golfer was speaking two days before the first day of the final Major of the season, the US PGA Championship at Bellerive Country Club in St Louis.
The event provided McIlroy's last major championship victory in Valhalla in 2014 and the closest he's come to a major victory in the meantime was at Carnoustie in last month's Open Championship.
Following a winless, injury-plagued 2017, McIlroy won the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in March, finished in the top five at both the Masters and the Open Championship, and seen his ranking to back up to fifth in the world.
Asked whether he'd rather have this year than an inconsistent season decorated with a single Major win, McIlroy plumped for the former.
"I definitely would have this. I would take this year over the one where you win a Major.
"It is about the results at the end of the day. People aren't going to look back at your career and think of the journey and it was consistent and whatever. They're going to look at if you one or lose.
"But I think within myself I would be happier to play the golf that I'm playing because I'm giving myself chances nearly every week that I tee it up.
"I would rather do that than have one hot week where you win a Major. But I would rather have the year that I'm having and persevere with it.
"It's not as if my game's in bad shape at all, it's just I just haven't won as much as I would have liked, but there's still plenty of time to change that.
"This is the last Major of the year. Obviously, you've got a lot of great tournaments coming up after this, but I think with a good week this week, it just puts a different spin on my year which some people see as disappointing."
McIlroy would certainly appear to be suited to the wet conditions at Bellerive and compared the course to Valhalla, the venue for his second US PGA victory and last major title to date in 2014.
"I've kept giving myself chances this year," the former world number one said. "I haven't closed out those tournaments as I would have liked, but at least I'm putting myself in position, and that's all I can do.
"I've done well, I'm slowly getting back up the world rankings. I started this year at 11th, I'm back up to fifth. I've done a lot of good things. The only thing I haven't done is win enough.
"I played in a lot of final groups and I haven't played well enough when it's counted. So that's something that I'm just trying to go through and try to figure out what I need to do to make that little step from contending and getting into final groups to lifting trophies.
"From 2014 I've given myself some half chances at majors. I think my best chance since Valhalla was at Carnoustie, but in golf you just have to be an eternal optimist.
"You have to make the most of everything, you have to see the positives and just move on and forget about it and that's what I've tried to do this year. The times where I haven't won and I haven't played my best, I try to learn from it and I move on. There's no point in reflecting on it too much or dwelling on it.
"You just have to turn up to the next tournament and it's a fresh start. And even this week's a fresh start for me after what happened on Sunday. It's another chance to give myself a chance to win a golf tournament."
