Rose wants to hit No 1 spot again with win in Turkey
The scenario is simple for Justin Rose at the Turkish Airlines Open: win and he returns to world No1. Nothing else will do – and that is just the way he wants it.
When the Englishman dreamed of topping the rankings, he envisaged himself doing so in a blaze of glory, lifting a title to move to the summit. However, the reality proved rather different.
“I got there by finishing second at the BMW [Championship in Philadelphia] a month or so ago,” he said. “It was great but I wanted to get there by winning. So that’s my mission here. Firstly because once you’ve had a taste for it, it’s quite nice, and secondly, I have never defended a title successfully. This would be a great double-whammy.”
Rose came close to retaining a crown at last week’s WGC HSBC Champions in China, before eventually finishing third behind Xander Schauffele. This offers another opportunity, as will the Indonesian Masters in December. It would take a brave person to back against him achieving his goal and displacing Brooks Koepka, especially after the radical transformation in his holing out. At 38, Rose feels that it is all coming together.
“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 and a big part of that was my putting,” he said. “And then this year, on the PGA Tour, where the stats are quite robust and you can look into it a bit deeper, I was No1 from four to eight feet. I’d never made the top 100 on that closerange putting stat before, and that is why we identified it as one of the biggest things holding me back.
“A lot of those putts are for pars and they can be critical in terms of maintaining momentum. You can see the results from the fact I’ve proved far more consistent in terms of contending at events and posting top-10 finishes – and, of course, the most obvious benefit has come with me making it to world No 1.
“At this stage of my career it’s all about trying to fill in the gaps the best you can, and the area we want to work on next is my wedge play. I need to improve my accuracy from 150 yards in, and hopefully a few more of those clutch putts I’m making more often will be for birdies instead of pars.”
Rose goes out today here at the Regnum Carya course in the company of Ryder Cup team-mates Tommy Fleetwood and Thorbjorn Olesen. Fleetwood would close to within 41,000 points at the top of the Race to Dubai standings should he win, although he revealed that overhauling Ryder Cup partner Francesco Molinari and so retaining the Harry Vardon Trophy was not his primary aim.
Like Rose, he is concentrating on the rankings. “To be honest, establishing myself in the world’s top 10 is more of an ambition than winning the Race to Dubai again,” Fleetwood said. “I’ve got that T-shirt from last year, and if I come up a little bit short I’ll take comfort from the fact that I’ve given it my best shot and not retaining the title is down to Frankie’s terrific play. I’ve sneaked into the top 10 a couple of times this year and I’m only one place away from it now, so if I continue to show the same consistency that has got me this far it is a very realistic goal.
“That is another big target this year – to knock off another win in the four events I’ve got left: here, Dubai, Hong Kong and Tiger’s tournament. If I do that I should also sew up the world top-10 spot and that would be the perfect validation for the hard work I’ve put in over the last two years.”