Fleetwood: Rose is doing my head in
JUSTIN ROSE has taken a massive step closer to a remarkable Race to Dubai triumph.
While American Patrick Reed overcame a back injury to lead after the first round of the DP World Championship in Dubai with a seven-under 65, Rose is just one shot behind.
Rose was a distant 10th in the money list until claiming more than 2.3million points with back-to-back wins in China and Turkey and came into the week trailing long-time leader Tommy Fleetwood by 256,738.
That means the Olympic champion needs at least a top-five finish to overhaul Fleetwood, whose 73 suffered hugely in comparison with another superb display from playing partner Rose.
“It looks worse and feels worse,” said Fleetwood. “He played flawless golf. I don’t know how long he’s going to keep doing this for, but it’s doing my head in.
“To do well I have to improve things myself. I can’t play my round and then watch him and hope he doesn’t do very well.”
Fleetwood admitted he was feeling the pressure as he double-bogeyed the first and dropped another shot on the third, but an eagle on the seventh helped him get back to level par before a threeputt bogey on the 17th.
Rose’s only bogey also came via a three-putt on the ninth, but the 37-yearold holed out from a bunker on the 14th for an eagle in a back nine of 31 and admitted he was now the man to catch.
“It has probably shifted but tomorrow could be a whole other day,” said Rose. “This was not on the radar a month ago. That’s the perspective that I have to keep because it’s an opportunity for me. It would be easy to think about it as being in my hands but it is still a bonus at this point.”
Reed might have something to say about that, with the world No23 intent on making the most of his surprise place in the field. He thought he had not played enough events to retain his European Tour membership, only to be told that the Presidents Cup counted towards the requirement of five.
“Any time you can start birdie, birdie, it gets you started and I was able to make some putts,” he said.