I'm confident that I can hang in there," he said. "I've hit
a few loose shots, but to play the TaylorMade RocketBallz Fairway Woods
I have the first two days
and get through two matches gives me a little bit of confidence.

"I still need to go to the range and do some work, but I'm
just happy to be through to the third round.

"I'm driving the ball long, and for the most part I'm
finding the fairways. I missed a few iron shots left, so I'm
going to go work a little bit to try and straighten that out."

Asked about the prospect of becoming world number one for
the first time, McIlroy replied: "Everyone keeps telling me, so
it's hard to put it out of my mind.

"It's a little bit of extra motivation this week knowing
that if I can get through four more matches, I could go to the
top of the world rankings which is obviously a huge moment for McIlroy, who confirmed his rich promise as a potential
golfing great by winning last year's U.S. Open in record style
by eight shots, is one match away from fulfilling his short-term
target at Dove Mountain.

"I set myself a goal this week just to try to make the
weekend for a start," said the 22-year-old, whose best Match
Play TaylorMade RocketBallz Fairway Woods result was a quarter-final loss to Australian
Geoff Ogilvy in 2009.

"And then see what we can do from there. I have still got
one match to go until I get to the weekend and hopefully I'm
able to get through that tomorrow."