Now everything’s coming up Roses
Comeback king wins second title in a week
THE value of perseverance? For Justin Rose, it’s somewhere in the region of £2.1million after a second extraordinary comeback in the space of eight days saw him fly off with the Turkish Airlines Open title yesterday.
He really is becoming a specialist in these lucrative heists, having followed his improbable £1.2m win in China the previous weekend with an £875,000 jackpot in this one.
This time it was a little less dramatic, but perhaps even more impressive because there was no collapse from a rival to help the fightback.
In China, he had the benefit of Dustin Johnson coughing up a six-stroke lead in the final nine holes; here, he was nine shots off the pace after two rounds and not a single one of those in front had a serious capitulation over the weekend. That he got the job done was purely down to his slow, systematic weathering of the course and field, with the world No 6 first fighting his way to contention and then, finally, to the top. Indeed, he did not hold even a share of the lead at any point until the 66th of 72 holes and only held it outright for the first time when he got to 17 under on the 70th. But even then he was pegged back, with Dylan Frittelli and Nicolas Colsaerts tying his lead with one hole to go, before a Rose birdie on the last — his third in four holes — took him to 18 under and settled it. His final two rounds of 64 and yesterday’s 65 were a combined 13 under par, an extraordinary weekend for an exquisite talent on a remarkable run.
It is fascinating to think the 37-year- old had not won anywhere since taking gold at the Rio Olympics, but has now won twice in succession from unenviable positions. The question is whether his penchant for successful comebacks will extend to the Race To Dubai, which has been blown wide open.
England’s Tommy Fleetwood was more than £2m ahead a fortnight ago and now, having finished 23rd here, has a surviving margin of below £120,000 with two events to go in the European Tour season.
Fleetwood’s advantage is that Rose is sticking to his original plan of not playing in South Africa next week, but he will return for the cash-heavy finale in Dubai. The decision could cost Rose a second Order of Merit crown a decade after his first, but he has favoured going home to his wife and two children in the Bahamas after three weeks of travelling.
He said: ‘ I put myself in a predicament about next week. I didn’t quite anticipate being so close to Tommy, but it’s still in his hands.
‘If I win Dubai then Tommy is going to have to play some good golf next week and Dubai to beat me, and if he does, hats off to him. I set my stall out, and I’ll stick to it.
‘I made the decision based on what I know works for me as a golfer and also family commitments. Being away from the kids for so long is not something I do. Some things aren’t worth the sacrifice and I really try to limit the time away to three weeks.’
Whatever follows from here, it has been a stunning end to a season that previously had been dominated by losing a play- off to Sergio Garcia at the Masters.
Rose said: ‘I would have said it was a B-minus season a couple weeks ago. Now I’m probably at an A-minus with one putt at Augusta away from being an A-plus.’