Rory relishing life as No 1

Rory McIlroy is relishing the chance to stand up and be the man with a target on his back as the new world No 1.

Getting to the top of the rankings has been a burden for players in the past but McIlroy welcomes the attention and has no intention of giving up top spot any time soon.

He said: “It depends on the way your mind works and I do thrive in the spotlight and I like the attention, not that I am attention seeker. But you know you are doing something right if you are in the spotlight. I suppose it is inevitable I will lose the number one ranking at some point but hopefully that doesn’t happen for a long time.”

Former No 1 Westwood said: “There’s nothing hard about being No. 1 in the world, no. If you don’t enjoy that, then you need to take up another sport. Me and Luke were talking about it on the putting green today. I said, ‘Oh, morning, No. 2.

“And he looked at me and nodded. And he said, ‘Yeah, it’s sort of a bit of a relief.’ He said, ‘There's only one way to go when you’re No. 1. At least there’s more than one way to go at No. 2.’ And Billy Foster, my caddie said, ‘Yeah, No. 5.’

“So, you know, you’re at the top there and everybody shoots at you but I think that’s the position you want to be in. You want the position that everybody is envious of.”

McIlroy revealed that he has had hundreds of messages of support - including texts from Manchester United’s Alex Ferguson, Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand.

He said: “Fergie, Rooney and Rio were in touch - the United boys. I got a lot. Greg Norman sent one to me. He said some very complimenty things. It’s nice to have people congratulate you and give you words of support and encouragement.

“It was great to get the messages from the guys at Man United. I've been to Old Trafford so many times and I’ve met them briefly. It is great to have their support and get their congratulations. It's pretty surreal. I’ve been a huge Man Utd fan for so many years and to have a text message from Alex Ferguson is pretty nice.”

Many are keen to compare McIlroy with Tiger Woods and set him up as the biggest rival to the former world No 1.

But McIlroy believes his biggest rival is not Woods or Westwood but Doral’s Blue Monster.

The world No 1 will get his first chance to defend his ranking when he tees it up with Westwood and former No 1 Luke Donald in the WGC-Cadillac Championship.

But when asked if he felt he was now Tiger’s biggest rival, he said: “I think it is more the media that builds up the rivalries. In golf, you can have a rival if you want but the end of the day your biggest rival is the golf course.”