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Cape Town - Rory McIlroy is hoping to convert his impressive recent form into a second successive World Golf Championships victory at the WGC-Mexico Championship, where Jon Rahm is aiming to depose the Northern Irishman at the top of Official World Golf Ranking.
"It's good to be back in Mexico... I feel like this tournament has gone from strength to strength the last few years, and I obviously would love to add it to the list of winners here," said McIlroy.
McIlroy claimed his third World Golf Championships title at the WGC-HSBC Champions last November and has picked up three consecutive top five finishes since - a purple patch which helped him overtake Brooks Koepka to return to the world No 1 spot for the first time since 2015.
"That would be pretty cool, to have won all of the World Golf Championships. WGCs are big events, with the top players in the world, and I've always played pretty well in them," said the Northern Irishman.
This week, he tied Nick Faldo in third place on the list of players with most cumulative weeks at the top of the World Rankings on 97 and another week would move him to outright third position, behind only Tiger Woods (683) and Greg Norman (331).
Rahm, however, could move to the top spot for the first time in his career.
The Spaniard - who received the Seve Ballesteros Award as the 2019 European Tour Players' Player of the Year ahead of the opening day of the WGC-Mexico Championship - would need a win if he is to have any chance of doing so this week.
"It's always nice to come to a country where they speak Spanish. The culture is a lot more similar to what it is in Spain. There's good food, good hospitality and a good golf course. It doesn't really get much better than this," said Rahm.
"My perspective hasn't changed at all this week, honestly. I'm here to win a tournament. That's what I'm here to do."
- European Tour
