HUMBLE, Texas (AP) ― Rory McIlroy sent a text message to Tiger Woods on Tuesday, congratulating him on winning at Bay Hill and taking over the No. 1 world ranking again.
Woods responded by telling McIlroy to get going ― he put it a bit more crudely than that ― and win this week’s Houston Open. A victory would put McIlroy back at No. 1, a spot he held for 32 weeks before Woods’ latest win.
For now, McIlroy is fine with Woods holding the world’s top ranking, especially with the Masters coming up in two weeks.
“I didn’t think I could go into the Masters under the radar,” McIlroy said. “I can go in a little bit underneath him. So, in a way, it’s not a bad thing.”
McIlroy skipped Bay Hill and says he had a “good week, a fun week” in Miami. He watched girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki play in the pro tennis event in Key Biscayne, Florida, then stopped by a municipal course on Saturday night to hit range balls in relative anonymity with Wozniacki and Novak Djokovic, currently the world’s No. 1 tennis player.
“People left me alone, it was fine,” McIlroy said.
“It’s nice to just go, not just go about my business and no one cares, but you go about it and not be, I guess, the most talked about person in golf. It’s a nice thing.”
McIlroy won four times in 2012, including the PGA Championship that catapulted him to No. 1.