Praise flies McIlroy’s way despite failure to shift Donald

Having lived up to the billing in the way he beat Lee Westwood in the semi-finals of the Accenture Match Play Championship in Tucson, McIlroy still needed to beat Mahan to take the No 1 spot. The 22-year-old played the last seven holes of the match in five under par with an eagle and three birdies, but that all came after he had three bogeys and a double-bogey in a front-nine 39 and it added up to a 2&1 defeat.

“I just left myself too much to do,” said Northern Ireland’s US Open champion, whose next chance to dethrone Donald comes in this week’s Honda Classic in Florida.

“It wasn’t to be, but I didn’t have my best game with me this week.”

There was still plenty to admire, though, and given that they used to be stablemates he took extra pleasure in getting the better of Westwood, who finished the event with a double defeat after also losing the third-place play-off to Mahan’s compatriot Mark Wilson.

Westwood led McIlroy by three after four, but the youngster hit back with six birdies in eight holes and won 3&1.

“I’m happy with how I’m playing and hopefully it won’t be long before I’m winning again,” added McIlroy. “I’ve got two more tournaments before The Masters and that’s what I’m building up to.”

It was at Augusta last April, of course, that he led by four with a round to go and then crashed to an 80.

The disappointment of that was more than made up for by winning his first major title only two months later, but becoming the youngest winner of a World Golf Championship since they began in 1999 would have been another feather in his cap.

Mahan now has two of them. He won the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron in 2010, although that was rather forgotten two months later when his defeat to Graeme McDowell at Celtic Manor handed Europe the Ryder Cup.

Nobody can say he had an easy path to the trophy last week. He beat three of his cup team-mates in Zach Johnson, Steve Stricker and Matt Kuchar, former US PGA champion YE Yang, Wilson and then McIlroy.

Lindrick will host this year’s Yorkshire Amateur Championship from July 3-7.

The former Open and Ryder Cup venue off the A57 near Sheffield regularly hosts Open Championship qualifying events and last staged the Yorkshire Amateur in 2002.