What a difference a year makes for Nick Hardy.

Last year, Hardy departed New Orleans with an injured left wrist heavily wrapped. On Sunday, that same hand was helping partner Davis Riley lift a PGA Tour trophy for the first time as winners of the Zurich Classic.

“I was actually in the hospital probably at this point last year,” Hardy said, “so it's a lot better place to be at here.”

Hardy had made just five of 13 cuts with no top-25s as a PGA Tour rookie when he arrived at TPC Louisiana for last year’s event, in which he teamed up with Curtis Thompson. On the fourth hole of his final round, Hardy hit a wedge shot and felt a pop in his wrist. He played on to a T-21 finish, but by the next morning his wrist had swelled.

An MRI at a nearby hospital revealed an ECU tendon subluxation and torn subsheath. Hardy didn’t need surgery, but he did go 30 days without hitting a ball and missed five weeks of action.

“I got lucky,” he says now. “Wrist injuries are tricky … and I played some good golf after that.”

Hardy’s return last summer was highlighted by a T-13 finish in the U.S. Open. He finished No. 143 in FedExCup points, but he’s been able to play this season from the major medical category.

Hardy kicked off the fall with five straight made cuts, including tying for fifth at the Sanderson Farms Championship. That finish gave him a cushion as he withstood a run of five straight missed cuts earlier this year.

“I feel like I've been playing some better golf lately, especially hitting the ball,” said Hardy, who has a T-13 at Puntacana and T-28 at Valero in the past month. “It just hadn't really showed in the results. In an event like this, once you get a little momentum going with a partner, I feel like it just can happen fast. I feel like that's what happened.”

Hardy and Riley, who as high-schoolers partnered in the AJGA’s Wyndham Cup, fired a 7-under 65 in alternate shot on Sunday to win by two shots at 30 under.

The victory didn’t come with a Masters invite, but it did give each of them two-year exemptions and bumped each of them from outside the top 80 to inside the top 40 in the FedExCup. Riley is No. 33 and Hardy is No. 39. The top 50 at season’s end qualify for next year’s designated events.

The thought of playing $20 million purses sure beats stressing about your card while nursing a bad wrist.

“To bounce back from that, those things, is definitely huge for me,” Hardy said. “Yeah, I just look back to last year now, and we've kind of come pretty far.”