Lee Westwood has insisted that he is happy to battle for competitions with Rory McIlroy over the next few months.

The pair met at the semi-finals of the Accenture Match Play Championship last weekend, with McIlroy coming out on top.

Westwood believes that it could be the first of many encounters between the two this year.

"If I am going to have a rivalry I would like it to be with Rory because he's arguably the hottest player on the planet at the moment," Westwood told reporters.

"I am willing to go along with that if you want to write about it. I've been around a long time now - this is my 19th year out here - and there's been various rivalries thrown at me during my career.

"It's going to go backwards and forwards. One of us will get the better of the other, as I did in Dubai two weeks ago and then Rory got the better of me last week."

The duo could cross paths at the Honda Classic in Palm Beach this weekend.