Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy Pairing Up at Doral

Mar 07, 2012 06:36 PM EST

The new No. 1 Rory McIlroy and Tiger woods will be paring up for the World Golf Championships-Cadillac Championship on the TPC Blue Monster at Doral.

"This is a World Golf Championship, and it's my last event before the Masters," McIlroy said. "I'd love to give myself a chance to win here again this week, and go into that three-week break with a lot of confidence."

"Doesn't count," Woods said about the Honda Classic where he finished one behind McIlroy. "That tournament is over with, whether you missed the cut or won the tournament. It's over. Now we're on to a new week, a new golf course, and have to learn it and be ready by Thursday."

"Now it's on to other aspects of the game," Woods said. "You have to take up and focus on the weaknesses, make them strengths. And we've done that, and we still have some more weaknesses to look at and to fix."

"To be honest, I was probably thinking to myself, 'Could it not just have been anyone else?'" McIlroy said. "The way I did it Sunday, with Tiger making the charge, it was almost more satisfying to do it that way, knowing that I held up under pretty intense pressure when I needed to.

"Closing out tournaments, and knowing what you need to do at the right time, all just comes with experience," he said. "And I feel like I've had a lot of experiences where I could have won tournaments and I haven't. And it's taking what you need from those close finishes and trying to do something a little bit better."

"I'm going to let other people make the comparisons," McIlroy said. "I'm not going to try and compare myself to anyone else. I've never said that I want to be the next anyone. I just want to be the first Rory McIlroy, however good that turns out to be. Then, I'll try my best to win tournaments and to win majors and to be the best player in the world.

"There's still a long road ahead, and I feel like I can accomplish a lot more." 

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