Roseis relaxed over thorny issue

Justin Rose concedes Tommy Fleetwood remains the strong favourite to win the Race to Dubai despite coming into the final event of the season in some of the best form of his career.

Long-time leader Fleetwood looked to be cruising to the title of Europe’s number one until Rose won back-to-back events in China and Turkey to slash the lead.

Victory for Rose, who won the final event of the year in 2007 – the Volvo Masters – to win what was then called the order of merit, would see him top the standings.

But he said: “I still like Tommy’s chances. His lead is significant. It means I’ve got to play well.

“All I wanted was to come in here thinking that if I win, I didn’t want to be too far behind Tommy so that if he finished second, I still couldn’t win. Controlling my destiny from that point of view is important

“IthinkI’vegiven itagreatrun heretowards theend”

to me. I like the fact that I don’t have to think about anyone else. Maybe Tommy does. There’s more scenarios in play that way, whereas, for me, I think I can just focus on playing good golf and get to the top of the leaderboard. That’s as simple as I’m trying to keep it this week.”

Rose considered changing his plans and playing in Sun City after his victory in Antalya, but ultimately stuck with his schedule and returned home to the Bahamas for the week.

The Olympic champion received a “clean bill of health” from coach Sean Foley and psychologist Jason Goldsmith and insists he will have no regrets if he loses out to Fleetwood by a narrow margin on Sunday.

“I would say so be it,” added the 37- year- old, who has ruled out any “intimidation” tactics when he partners Fleetwood in today’s first round.

“I think I’ve given it a great run here towards the end.”