Rose putts his hand up for No1

JUSTIN ROSE aims to regain the No1 world ranking this week but admits “the Tiger effect” means a period of sustained dominance is unlikely.

The Ryder Cup hero is back this week at the Turkish Airlines Open, with victory enough to dethrone Brooks Koepka. It would also give him the first successful title defence of his career, and the 38-year-old said: “It would be a great double whammy. A couple of years ago, my team and I put a plan together for what we felt I had to do to get to world No1. A big part of that was my putting.

“I felt I could really improve between three and eight feet, so I built some putting drills to help me improve that. This year, on the PGA Tour, I was ranked No1 from four to eight feet. “So that’s how I choose to set my goals; areas of my game rather than results. I feel like the results take care of themselves.” After sharing No1 with Dustin Johnson and Koepka recently, Rose, above, believes Woods’ influence has provided golf with incredible strength in depth. “We are seeing the Tiger effect – Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, etc, coming through to the top of the game having been influenced so much by Tiger,” he said.

“The strength and depth now is pretty impressive. It’s nip and tuck. To see someone be No1 for two, three years, might be tricky but someone can win two or three times and build the lead for six months quite easily.”