While the sports world did a triple back flip in Rory McIlroy moving finally to World No. 1 there was a fellow player, who in the words of the infamous Rhett Butler declared:  ‘Frankly dear, I don’t give a damn!’

Hunter Mahan, winner of the season’s first WGC event, revealed he was more interested in watching sport in general on the TV rather than live coverage of Rory McIlroy moving to World No. 1.

Of course, you would half expect Mahan to be interested in the efforts of McIlroy given it had only been seven days since the American denied the Northern Irishman the much expected World No. 1 crown in capturing the WGC – Accenture Match-Play Championship.

Hunter Mahan says he's hardly concerned if McIlroy goes to No. 1 or Woods shoots a last day 62. (Photo - Fran Caffrey/www.golffile.ie)

But not the present World No. 10 ranked Mahan.

Mahan was quizzed:  “If you had turned on the TV Sunday and Tiger had just been having a middling round, what would you have done?  Would you have kept watching?

He responded:  “No, I would have turned it off.  (Laughter).

It generated a response:  “Even if Rory was set to become the new World No.1?”

And Mahan answered that question to more laughter from those listening in.

“I would have turned it on SportsCenter.  They would have told me what happened.  (Laughter) I don’t need to watch it.

“I mean, Rory’s No. 1‑‑ but this week, if he doesn’t play great, Luke plays great, I don’t know, maybe Luke will go back to one.  I don’t know.  I know how good Rory is;

“I played him the week before, so I don’t need to ‑‑ if he wins, he wins.  Looking at the leaderboard, I was like, well, he’s the best player there for sure, so I assumed he was going to win.

“You know, when great players do stuff is when they are supposed to; when you saw that leaderboard with Rory, you’re like well, if he’s going to be No. 1, he should win, and he did. 

“So,  that’s saying something for sure.”

And really with dozens being murdered each day in Syria and Coalition forces continuing to put their lives on the line in war-torn Afghanistan perhaps Mahan is right.