Chris Wood could not hide his delight after he climbed off his sickbed to finish third at the Nedbank Golf Challenge.
A back nine of 32 catapulted the Englishman up the leaderboard on Sunday, but he admitted he very nearly did not tee it up at Gary Player Country Club due to illness.
The 28 year old was on a drip earlier in the week but an eagle and four birdies in his last ten holes helped the Lyoness Open Powered by Greenfinity champion get his 2016 campaign off to a good start and likely climb back into the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
"It's hard to believe at the moment," he said. "On Tuesday night I was on a drip for 13 hours and there was no chance of me playing, given the way I felt.
"I was wheeled through the hotel in a wheelchair and tucked into bed by three men – two doctors and a guy from the hotel. I was in a bad way. So whatever the result was I was just glad to be playing, so to finish third is amazing.
"The heat just got me on Sunday on Monday and I had to pull out of the pro-am on Tuesday and then didn't hit a shot until Thursday. I was pretty weak but the doctors have been monitoring me each day and I managed to complete four rounds which I never thought I would."
Henrik Stenson finished a place above Wood in second behind Marc Leishman but he was another player who was battling illness at the start of the week.
The Swede admitted he only thought he had a five per cent chance of playing at one point but rounds of 66-67-70-72 saw him come close to winning the title for a second time in Sun City.
The 39 year old had four top tens but failed to claim a win in 2015 and, while he admits that was a disappointment, the nine-time European Tour winner was content with his week in South Africa.
"I'll take it, looking at the bigger picture," he said. "With the chances I've had this year, to be winless is a little disappointing but all in all it's been a solid year and I've got to look at the good results I made and the amount of world ranking points and all the rest of it.
"Of course I'd like to be holding the trophy, and I had a nice chance here. Obviously dropping a few coming in yesterday made it harder. It's always harder to make those up on a Sunday – I would rather have been one ahead than one behind going into the last round.
"Marc played really solidly and shot five under on a tricky day. I didn't start off that great, came back a little in the middle of the round and needed something spectacular towards the end, and I couldn't do that. All credit to him for the win – he's a deserving champion."
He added: "I'll have knee surgery in Orlando on Wednesday and hopefully the recovery will go well and I'll be ready for Abu Dhabi."
