• WGC-Accenture Match Play

Westwood and McIlroy at odds over No. 1 aim

Rory McIlroy has his eyes firmly trained on the prize © Getty Images

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Lee Westwood has insisted he is not distracted by the prospect of becoming world No. 1, which is in stark contrast to Rory McIlroy who has revealed he has one eye trained on toppling Luke Donald.

With Donald crashing out of the WGC-Accenture World Match Play Championship in the first round, the path is clear for Westwood or McIlroy to become golf's top dog.

Westwood, who has already been world No. 1, claims his greatest motivation is to end his drought in the majors and win WGC events.

"Obviously I'd like to be No. 1 in the world, but it's not really a priority," Westwood said following his win over Nick Watney that sets him up for a clash with Martin Laird in the quarter finals. "It's not really a goal I've set. To win a major championship, to win these World Golf Championships, to win in the States and do that more regularly are goals. If I do that then the No. 1 in the world ranking just comes along as a product of that."

McIlroy, who beat Miguel Angel Jimenez on Friday, got his hands on a major at last year's US Open and has his sights trained on becoming world No. 1 for the first time.

Asked if it is tough not to think about becoming world No. 1, McIlroy said: "To be honest it is. But in a way that's a good thing. I've said it all week, it gives me a little bit of motivation, a little bit of an extra incentive, not that I really need one.

"It's a World Golf Championship and there's plenty of ranking points and plenty of money up for grabs. But it's a nice incentive. It's nice to have in the back of your mind. And if you are struggling in a match and find it hard to get yourself up or get any sort of momentum, if you think about that and you think if you can really dig deep you still have a chance to become No. 1. It can work both ways. You can turn it into a positive if you want."

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