Rory McIlroy earns No. 1 ranking; Tiger Woods closes with 62

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. -- Rory McIlroy won the Honda Classic with a performance worthy of the new No. 1 player in golf.

Right when it looked as though McIlroy had no serious challengers Sunday, Tiger Woods put some color into that red shirt with a birdie-eagle finish for a 62 -- his lowest final round ever -- to get within one shot of the lead.

McIlroy could hear the roar from the farthest corner of PGA National, and the 22-year-old from Northern Ireland responded with some clutch golf of his own. He made an 8-foot birdie putt, and then made three clutch par saves. He closed with a 1-under 69 and the victory he needed to replace Luke Donald atop the world ranking.

"It was tough today, especially seeing Tiger make a charge," McIlroy said. "I knew par golf would probably be good enough."

McIlroy is the second-youngest to be No. 1 in the world behind Woods, who was 21 when he first went to No. 1 after the 1997 U.S. Open

Woods finished his round with birdie-eagle, also made eagle on the third hole, and wound up two shots behind, along with Tom Gillis, who birdied the last hole for a 69.

McIlroy, who finished at 12-under 268, won for the fifth time in his career, including the U.S. Open last summer. He has finished out of the top five once since the PGA Championship last August.

"There's very few players as good at him at his age out there winning tournaments," Padraig Harrington said. "He doesn't look like a guy who is going to burn out. He looks like he's going to be here for a while."

After a Sunday like this, no one will be quick to rule out Woods. He was nine shots behind going into the final round, and even a 31 on the front nine in blustery conditions left him five shots behind McIlroy. But the finish was vintage Woods.

"To me, it was the old Tiger back, the guy that I remember," said Ernie Els, who played alongside him. "He never missed a shot or made a bad swing."

"It was a lot of fun out there," Graeme McDowell said. "It was just roars going up all over the golf course . . . This golf season just got a lot more spicy."