Mickelson targets elusive No 1 spot but nobody's writing off Woods

Can Tiger Woods be as bad as he was last week? Can Rory McIlroy be as good as he was last week? Can Phil Mickelson finally make it to world No 1?

The Masters champion will take over at the top of the rankings if he wins the 6.2million Players Championship at Sawgrass in Florida and Woods finishes outside the first five.

Both look eminently possible. Mickelson was runner-up to the inspired McIlroy at the Quail Hollow Championship on Sunday, while Woods has admitted that his personal troubles contributed to an error-ridden second-round 79 that sent him crashing out of the event.

He has never missed two successive cuts. Despite putting five balls in water during nine holes of practice on Tuesday, Woods made optimistic noises but looked and sounded dreadfully affected by the fall-out from the revelation of his extra-marital affairs.

Mickelson, though, would not be surprised if the man who has denied him the No 1 spot for 244 weeks in his career bounces straight back – and nor would Ian Poulter, who plays the first two rounds with Woods.

"I think everybody was a little shocked last week," said England's world No 6, who correctly predicted a top-five finish for the American on his comeback at Augusta a month ago. "But you can never write him off at any stage.

"The discussion four weeks ago would have been how poor a season Mickelson had had to that point, but he has turned his year around very quickly. He found something in his swing and goes out and wins the Masters. I would expect Tiger to be doing something very similar.

"He needs two shots or an hour on the range to find a swing thought and all of a sudden you're out there winning tournaments."

McIlroy is a perfect example of that too. Down in the dumps after a second successive missed cut at Augusta the Northern Ireland youngster – who turned 21 on Tuesday – talked of quitting the game for a while.

But three weeks later there he was at Quail Hollow following a third round 66 with a course record 62 and beating a high-class field by four shots.

McIlroy's confidence, after what was only his second professional win, has shot up as a result, but he issued a warning yesterday that it does not guarantee further and greater success instantly.

"I don't want to get myself too carried away," he said the morning after a "birthday bash" organised by his caddie JP Fitzgerald. "It was a great weekend. It doesn't mean that I'm going to contend in the majors right away.

"I really hope that I do (next chance is next month's US Open at Pebble Beach), but it's a very long career. I've got 25-30 years to go.

"But knowing that I beat a great field on basically a major championship venue, especially with the likes of Phil and Angel (Cabrera) coming behind me, and play golf like that down the stretch gives me the belief that if I can do it there I can pretty much do it anywhere."

On his debut at Sawgrass last year, McIlroy scored 74 and 77 and missed the cut by seven. Now he is joint third favourite for victory along with Jim Furyk – Woods and Mickelson jointly top the betting with most bookmakers, although some have Mickelson as outright favourite – for a title won by Swede Henrik Stenson and Spaniard Sergio Garcia in the last two years.

After his Masters near-miss Lee Westwood would love to follow them, although far from rating this week the sport's "unofficial fifth major", as it has often been dubbed, he said last week that he puts it behind the four World Championships.

The first prize of just over 1.1million would not even be Westwood's biggest pay-day. When he won the Dubai World Championship, and with it the European money list title bonus, last November he earned more than 1.6million.