The top three in the Official World Golf Ranking will go eyeball to eyeball in Dubai this week, and come Sunday night we could have a new world order.
Having been paired in the same three-ball for the opening two rounds of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, World Number One Lee Westwood of England will be able to keep close tabs on his nearest challengers, World Number Two Martin Kaymer of Germany and World Number Three Tiger Woods of America.
How they fare over the next four days at Emirates Golf Club will determine their positions in the Official World Golf Ranking at the end of the week, with Kaymer capable of deposing Westwood from the top of the tree.
Providing Westwood finishes outside the top two, victory for Kaymer would see him become the first German to claim the coveted Number One spot since Bernhard Langer achieved the feat in 1986.
Indeed, taking second place on his own would even be good enough for Kaymer to climb to the head of the World Ranking provided Westwood finishes outside the top ten, or outside the top 36 if the German shares second with one other player.
Kaymer thus has an even greater incentive to add to his haul of nine European Tour titles, though if the German allows his standards to slip from the exalted heights of recent times, he could be staring nervously over his shoulder at Woods.
In order to climb one place closer to the pinnacle of a game he dominated for so long, Woods would need to win his third Dubai Desert Classic title and hope Kaymer finishes no higher than sixth.
The American is, however, also susceptible to being overhauled by his compatriot Phil Mickelson, who would reclaim the World Number Three spot should he win the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on the US PGA Tour, and Woods fail to finish in the top two in Dubai.
With 50 World Ranking points available, so many permutations possible and the 64 places for the WGC-Accenture Match Play also to be determined at the end of this week, a fascinating duel in the desert is all but guaranteed.
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