“Of course I care about it!” - Rory McIlroy opens up about battle for the World No. 1 spot ahead of Genesis Invitational

Rory McIlroy lost his No. 1 ranking to Scottie Scheffler last week. The Northern Irish golfer competed at the 2023 WM Phoenix Open, where he finished T32 while Scheffler registered his victory and regained the No. 1 title.

McIlroy, however, is excited to reclaim the title at the Genesis Invitational, which is scheduled to take place this week.

The tournament has become the talk of the town as fans are curious to know if Rory McIlroy can win back the No. 1 spot. Speaking about it, the Irishman said:

"Yeah, of course I care about it. I think it's a really cool thing to be ranked No 1 in whatever you do, but I think it just goes to show the level of depth and the level of talent that's out here. I literally have one average week, it wasn't even a bad week, just an average week, and there's always someone waiting to overtake you or to come and try to take that mantle from you."

He added:

"I think it's a great thing for the game. I've got a chance to get it back this week. You know, hopefully it's a bit of a sort of hot potato thing where me, Scottie and Jon [Rahm] sort of pass it around a little bit because it means we're all playing great golf."

The Genesis Invitational is scheduled to take place at the Riviera Country Club from February 16 to February 19. The tournament will feature 134 golfers, with 23 of them in the top 25 world rankings.

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Will Rory McIlroy be able to reclaim the top spot this week?

Rory McIlroy can regain the No. 1 spot in two conditions. Firstly, if Scottie Scheffler finishes under T25 and Rory secures one of the three top positions. Secondly, if he wins the tournament, he can easily surpass the American golfer in the Official World Golf Rankings.

However, Jon Rahm, the current world No. 3, is also in line to dethrone Scottie and reserve the top spot for himself. Undoubtedly, his performance in the tournament will impact Rory McIlroy's ranking.

Here is the list of the top 50 golfers.

• 1. Scottie Scheffler
• 2. Rory McIlroy
• 3. Jon Rahm
• 4. Cameron Smith
• 5. Patrick Cantlay
• 6. Xander Schauffele
• 7. Justin Thomas
• 8. Will Zalatoris
• 9. Collin Morikawa
• 10. Matt Fitzpatrick
• 11. Victor Hovland
• 12. Max Homa
• 13. Tony Finau
• 14. Sam Burns
• 15. Tom Kim
• 16. Jordan Spieth
• 17. Cameron Young
• 18. Sungjae Im
• 19. Billy Horschel
• 20. Hideki Matsuyama
• 21. Keegan Bradley
• 22. Shane Lowry
• 23. Joaquin Niemann
• 24. Tyrrell Hatton
• 25. Brian Harman
• 26. Tommy Fleetwood
• 27. Abraham Ancer
• 28. Seamus Power
• 29. Ryan Fox
• 30. Sepp Straka
• 31. Tom Hoge
• 32. Russell Henley
• 33. Sahith Theegala
• 34. Thomas Pieters
• 35. Adam Scott
• 36. Justin Rose
• 37. Corey Conners
• 38. Kevin Kisner
• 39. Kyoung Hoon Lee
• 40. Aaron Wise
• 41. Alex Horen
• 42. Si Woo Kim
• 43. Talor Gooch
• 44. Kurt Kutayama
• 45. Lucas Herbert
• 46. Guillermo Mito Pereira
• 47. Min Woo Lee
• 48. Chris Kirk
• 49. Harold Varner II
• 50. JT Poston