Donald enjoying the limelight

Luke Donald is looking forward to playing alongside the world’s top two Martin Kaymer and Lee Westwood at the WGC-Cadillac Championship in Florida this week.

The Englishman moved up to a career-high third in the world with his victory at the WGC Accenture World Match Play last month and is enjoying his newly-elevated status, which means he will play in the marquee group on Thursday at Doral.

He said: “It is a nice feeling. Certainly you use that to your advantage and that adds to your confidence level.

“There’s only two players ranked higher than me in the world right now and that’s pretty amazing to think about.

“And it will be fun having Lee and Martin, two Ryder Cup team-mates, there. We get along very well.”

Donald does not have a great record around Doral’s ‘Blue Monster’, but he added: “My game feels very solid and kind of where I want it to be.”

With the world’s top 21 all being put in ranking order for the opening two rounds, it is current number four Graeme McDowell who gets to see Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson close up.

Paul Casey and Rory McIlroy, seventh and eighth respectively, play with Steve Stricker and almost unbelievably could make it an all-European top six on Sunday night.

Ian Poulter, who stands 13th, partners big-hitting Americans Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson.

The no-cut event has a field of 69 and will be the first time since the same tournament two years ago that all the game’s top 50 are in action.

Rivalry

Meanwhile, it is the 27th clash between American rivals Woods and Mickelson in Tour events, but the first time they have begun a tournament in each other’s company since the 2008 US Open.

For the record, of the 26 times they have played together, Mickelson and Woods have each posted the lower score 11 times, while they finished level on the other four occasions.

Mickelson, though, has never led the head-to-head series and so could do that for the first time after Thursday’s round. He has “won” the last three clashes and has ‘lost’ only one of the last eight.