DORAL, Fla. – The battle for the No. 1 spot in the world rankings got interesting Thursday at the WGC-Cadillac Championship. The new No. 1 didn’t play as well as his predecessor.
If either Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy or Lee Westwood win this week, they’ll earn the top position. Donald played the best of the trio and shot 70. McIlroy shot 73, Westwood 76.
“Obviously Rory has been playing great and Lee has too,” Donald said. “Both of them played extremely well last week. But, you know, personally, I played pretty solid today. Pretty happy with the way I played.”
Donald made five birdies a bogey and a double bogey and is tied for 13th place. Westwood made six bogeys and two birdies at a place where he’s never played well, while McIlroy made four bogeys and three birdies on the windswept afternoon.
“It was a big of a struggle,” McIlroy said. “It was a pretty tricky day but obviously there was good scores out there. I just didn’t really get anything going.”
McIlroy’s 73 was his first over-par round since Oct. 8.
