Rory McIlroy, who has committed himself to the US PGA Tour this year, needs to win this week's Honda Classic to go to World No 1 for the first time.
As was the case at Dove Mountain in Arizona last week, nothing less will be enough.
And this despite the fact that in making last week's final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship which he lost 2&1 to American Hunter Mahan, the 22-year-old Northern Ireland World No 2 closed the gap between himself and reigning World No 1 Luke Donald from 1.45 to just 0.53 points.
Without Donald and some of the game's other big guns, the Honda Classic cannot boast the world-class field that contested the WGC Match Play - or will feature again in the season's second World Golf Championship event, the WGC-Caddilac Championship, next week - and therefore cannot offer anything like as many ranking points.
Lee Westwood stays at number three after losing his semi-final clash to McIlroy at Dove Mountain, but the Englishman, who is making a habit this season of getting into the lead, or very close to it, heading into the final day, but then failing to close the sale, may have to wait until the Cadillac in Miami for another opportunity to pick up sufficient points to regain the World No 1 spot he took away from Tiger Woods some two years ago.
golf365.com