Martin Kaymer's intent on holding No.1 status

Martin Kaymer is making no bold predictions about staying as golf's world No.1 for months or years - but he is clearly in no mood to relinquish the position yet.

The 26-year-old headed into the third round of the Cadillac Championship, the second of this season's World Golf Championship events, joint second with Ryder Cup team-mate Francesco Molinari on eight under par and only a stroke behind American Hunter Mahan.

Scotland's Martin Laird is one shot behind Kaymer on seven under in a share of fourth place after a second-round 70.

Second-ranked Lee Westwood, on the other hand, resumed down in 34th place on level par with Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson - and that in a field of only 66.

Kaymer, who took over from Westwood at the top by reaching the final of the WGC-Accenture Match Play a fortnight ago, said: "Obviously I'm very happy with my performance so far.

"I'm the No.1 in the world for at least two weeks. Hopefully if I keep playing the way I do then another week. And then we'll see. I don't really worry about the world rankings. You only have to worry if you play bad golf."

Woods, who came into the week with a chance to climb from fifth all the way back to second, is instead in danger of dropping as low as eighth after following his opening 70 with a 74.

The 35-year-old was suffering some stiffness in his back, but did not use that as an excuse.

Westwood's chances of winning may well have ended after a double bogey seven on the long eighth, as Mickelson had done in the first round.

Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy and Laird are only two off the lead with Americans Nick Watney and Matt Kuchar, while Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald will hope to climb into contention from four back.

Three Japanese players are in the field and 19-year-old Ryo Ishikawa was lying second after his opening 65, but then came a 76 after watching coverage of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in his home country.

He said: "Without really knowing too much about the extent of damage, I cannot talk too much about the earthquake itself - but I realise with the extent of coverage here it must be a very grave situation. Many of the players walked up to me such as Ernie Els and Vijay Singh and asked how was my family and showed a lot of concern, and I appreciated that. I tried my best to block everything out, but as you can imagine it's a tough day."