Shane Lowry has partly attributed his late season return to form to his decision to switch caddies midway through the season.
However, the Clara golfer stresses that his previous caddie Dermot Byrne, who worked with him successfully for nine years, was not to blame for his dip in form.
Lowry enjoyed one of his best weeks of a largely frustrating 2018, shooting a final round of 66 to finish second on his own at the Andalucia Valderrama Masters, four shots adrift of home favourite Sergio Garcia.
After parting ways with Byrne in the wake of the Open Championship, Lowry temporarily handed his brother the bag before finding a more permanent arrangement with experienced caddie Brian 'Bo' Martin.
Byrne was on Lowry's bag when he won WGC Bridgestone Invitational in 2015, the biggest victory of his career, after which he broke into the world's top 20. The following year, he led the US Open at Oakmont by four strokes heading into the final round only to falter in the final eighteen holes and finish 2nd to Dustin Johnson.
But Lowry experienced a sharp dip in form this season, culminating in the loss of his PGA Tour card at the end of the season, an eventuality he very nearly staved off with a late season burst of form.
Despite this, Lowry is in relatively buoyant mood after his runners-up finish in Valderrama, a course he loves. Speaking to Game On on RTÉ 2fm, Lowry said the change of caddie had helped him as he felt he had allowed himself to grow too dependent on Byrne.
"It's easy to look happy and be happy when you're playing decent golf. I suppose since the start of August, I've been playing decent golf and I've had a few good finishes.
"I can see the light at the end of the tunnel as opposed to April, May, June when you feel like you're in a dark hole and you can't shoot good scores and have good finishes.
"But I've kept doing what I felt was right and finally it's started to pay off.
"I wouldn't put any blame on anyone in particular. I think the relationship between myself and Dermot had gotten a little stale towards the end.
"We'd been together for nine years. We had a very successful time together. We've both done very well out of it. So, we decided to call it a day at the Open Championship this year.
"I feel like I was a bit too dependent on him. When I get on the golf course now, I'm doing a lot more stuff myself, doing my own yardages.
"When you get dependent on a caddie it's almost like you have someone to blame. No matter what you do, it's not your fault and you find a way to blame them. I find when I make the odd mistake now, I take more blame myself. It probably puts me in a better frame of mind.
"'Bo', Brian Martin, started with me and since then, I've been playing alright. I had my brother on the bag in America and played alright. Since Bo started, I had a decent chance to win in Portugal and I'd a good chance to win last week. So, the change there has helped me a little bit.
"But I would like to emphasise that I'm not putting any blame on anyone only myself. Dermot is a great caddie and was a great servant to me. And I do wish him well in the future, he's got a good bag now, Julian Suri, and he's doing quite well with him. Look, we're still friends. He texted me after I finished yesterday and we had a good chat.
"But the start of my career with Bo has gone quite well and I'm looking forward to the next few weeks."
This week's performance saw Lowry jump to 70th in the world rankings, 20 spots off where he needs to be to qualify for a raft of prestigious events. Lowry aims to break into the world's top 50 in a few months time.
"I sat down with 'Bo' when I started with him and I set a goal of trying to get back in the top 50 by mid-February. Because that'll make sure I'll be in the Players (Championship) in March and a few other things like the World Matchplay and the Masters. Yesterday gave me a decent jump in the world rankings up to 70th.
"I love playing in Europe. I really enjoyed my time in America even though my golf wasn't great and my finishes weren't as good as I wanted and I obviously lost my card there, so no real choice to come back.
"But I always play these tournaments in Europe at the end of the year so they were always in my schedule. Does the European Tour suit me more? Probably. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. We haven't even got the European Tour schedule for ourselves next year so it's all a bit of guesswork. I just want to finish the year with the next few tournaments as strongly as possible."
