Donald and McIlroy both birdied the 18th to set up a season-ending duel between No. 1 and No. 2 — something not seen since last year when Donald won the BMW PGA Championship in a playoff with Lee Westwood to replace him at the top.
Though the Northern Irishman has the top ranking locked up, a victory on Sunday would affirm his claim as the world's best golfer heading into 2013.
"It's very important no matter what happens tomorrow," McIlroy said. "I guess I'm No. 1 going into next year. But it will be nice to put an exclamation mark on, if you want."
For Donald, a victory would serve as a revenge of sorts. McIlroy took the No. 1 ranking from him earlier this year and then went out and matched the Englishman's feat of winning both tour money titles in 2011. The two haven't played in a final round together since 2007 and that was when Donald was ranked 17th and McIlroy 233rd.
"In terms of my own confidence, it would be a great way to finish off the year," Donald said. "Any time you're playing against the best player in the world, if you can go head-to-head and come out on top, yeah you're going to come away feeling good about things."
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Reader Comments (