Mahan maintains Cadillac lead

Martin Kaymer is making no bold predictions about staying as golf’s world number one for months or years – but he is clearly in no mood to relinquish the position yet.

The 26-year-old headed into today’s third round of the Cadillac Championship, the second of this season’s world championships, joint second with Ryder Cup team-mate Francesco Molinari on eight under par and only a stroke behind American Hunter Mahan.

Second-ranked Lee Westwood, on the other hand, resumed down in 34th place on level par with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson – and that in a field of only 66.

Kaymer, who took over from Westwood at the top by reaching the final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play a fortnight ago, said: “Obviously I’m very happy with my performance so far.

“After the PGA Championship (his first major win last August) a lot of people thought this may be the end of my career, especially in Germany.

“A lot of people were expecting a lot from me, but they were not expecting that I could win a major.

“And once I reach the top everybody was surprised. I was surprised too and nobody really thought I can keep up that level. That’s why it was even more important for me to keep winning.

“I love so much to be in contention every week. That is what golf is all about and that is why I practise so hard – to be in that position as much as possible.

“I’m the number one in the world for at least two weeks. Hopefully if I keep playing the way I do then another week. And then we’ll see.

“I don’t really worry about the world rankings. I think you only have to worry if you play bad golf.”

Woods, who came into the week with a chance to climb from fifth all the way back to second, is instead in danger of dropping as low as eighth after following his opening 70 with a 74.

The 35-year-old was suffering from some stiffness in his back, but did not use that as an excuse for falling back into the middle of the pack.

Westwood’s chances of winning may well have ended after a double bogey seven on the long eighth, as Mickelson had done in the first round.

Northern Ireland’s Rory McIlroy and Scot Martin Laird are only two behind with Americans Nick Watney and Matt Kuchar, while Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald will hope to climb into contention from four back.

Three Japanese players are in the field and 19-year-old Ryo Ishikawa was lying second after his opening 65, but then came a 76 after watching coverage of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in his home country.

He said: “Without really knowing too much about the extent of damage, I cannot talk too much about the earthquake itself – but I realise with the extent of coverage here it must be a very grave situation.

“Many of the players walked up to me such as Ernie Els and Vijay Singh and asked how was my family and showed a lot of concern, and I appreciated that.

“I tried my best to block everything out, but as you can imagine it’s a tough day.”

He at least had made contact with his parents and knew they were okay – they live 250 miles from Tokyo – and Hiroyuki Fujita was given the same news while out on the course, but Yuta Ikeda was still waiting for word of his family.