It's 44 days since Rory McIlroy last hit a competitive shot. That shot was a missed putt on the third playoff hole of the BMW SA Open where the Northern Irishman lost out to Graeme Storm.
The rib injury that he was suffering from at that time forced him towithdraw from the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championshipthe following week and miss seven weeks of action.
“In situations like this you simply have to listen to the experts," McIlroy said. "The team I have consulted have all advised me to rest until my rib has fully recovered.”
It's 528 days since McIlroy last sat atop the golfing world as the Number One ranked player in the Official Golf World Rankings. Shortly after Jason Day won the 2015 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits he took the Number One crown from McIlroy and the Australian along with Jordan Spieth and most recently Dustin Johnson have held the position since.
That could all change this week however.
If McIlroy wins the WGC-Mexico Championship and current World Number One Dustin Johnson finishes worse than fourth, McIlroy will jump ahead of both Johnson and Day and reclaim the top spot.
While the event travels south of the border this week to Mexico for the first time, McIlroy has performed well in the first World Golf Championship of the season in recent years. Since 2011, the 27 year old has finished in the top ten, of what was formerly the WGC-Cadillac Championship, five times in six appearances, including a top three 12 months ago.
Sitting at World Number Three starting the week of his comeback, McIlroy could mathematically move to second in the rankings with a runner-up or third place finish.
