Rory McIlroy is looking forward to playing many more rounds of golf with Tiger Woods after being paired with the US star in Abu Dhabi.
The Northern Irishman had only played a couple of competitive rounds with the 14-time major winner prior to last week's Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship but he shared the course with Woods for his first three rounds in the United Arab Emirates.
And the 22-year-old came out of the tussle in good shape, finishing runner up to England's Robert Rock, as Woods' challenge faded during his final round to finish in a tie for third.
Woods' fall down the rankings has seen McIlroy emerge as the man to beat in world golf and he leapfrogged Lee Westwood into second place in the world rankings with his high finish on Sunday.
McIlroy and Woods will be among the favourites for the year's first major at Augusta, with the American looking to win his fifth Masters and the Holywood-born star aiming to atone for his final-round meltdown in 2011 and win his first title at the famous Georgia venue.
Most pundits and the golfing public in general would love to see McIlroy and Woods go head-to-head over the final nine holes at Augusta and the European Ryder Cup star admits that playing with the great man could inspire him to win events in the future.
"It would have been nice to play with Tiger in the final round in Abu Dhabi and it might have given me that little added spur to have maybe won the event," he said.
"But after playing a practice round and three competition rounds alongside Tiger I hope I can play more in his company this year."
Woods has looked a shadow of his former self over the past 18 months but appears to be coming out of his slump and McIlroy feels that any time he is paired with the three-time Open champion can only help his game.
"It seems from what we've seen this week that Tiger is back to playing his best and I guess if I am playing alongside him them I'm doing all right, as well," he added. "When Tiger's playing in an event he's the name you're looking for on the leaderboard."