Rory McIlroy

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McIlroy could take No 1 ranking

Rory McIlroy has a chance to end this week’s Accenture Match Play as the world’s top ranked player.

The first of the season’s World Golf Championship events gets underway at Dove Mountain near Tucson on Wednesday, and the Northern Irishman knows that, should he win the event and should current World No 1 Luke Donald fall at the first or second hurdle, he will move to the top of the rankings for the first time in his career.

The first job for McIlroy on Wednesday is to get past up-and-coming South African George Coetzee, while Donald has a potentially much tougher first match in Ernie Els, a seasoned match play campaigner.

Lee Westwood, up against Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts, also has a chance of taking the No 1 ranking, should he win and Donald not make the quarter-finals.

But it’s the prospect of the 22-year-old US Open champion reaching the top spot at such an early age that is grabbing most of the headlines.

“The rankings are sort of a by-product of what you do,” said McIlroy. “I’d rather just concentrate on trying to win tournaments and trying to improve as a player.

“If I happen to do that, then hopefully the ranking will take care of itself.”

Surprisingly, this is McIlroy’s first event in America since the USPGA Championship last August - the week he hurt himself hitting against a tree root.

He has enjoyed a period of amazing consistency, racking up nine top 10 finishes in his last 10 starts, but perhaps noticably he has not gone on to win any.

He’ll no doubt be eager to start proving that he has the ability to finish tournaments off on a more regular basis.