Justin Rose has birdied the final hole at the Turkish Airlines Open to win back-to-back events and move within striking distance of Tommy Fleetwood at the top of the Race to Dubai standings.
The Englishman clinched the 10th European Tour title of his career after sinking an eight-foot putt on the final hole to breakaway from a three-way tie for the lead.
His playing partner, Nicolas Colsaerts, narrowly missed a birdie putt from a similar distance. While Dylan Frittelli, who had signed for a seven-under 64 and the round of the day, watched on from the clubhouse as Rose ripped the tournament out of his hands.
“I’m just delighted with that,” Rose said. “I think it’s my first back-to-back on the European Tour ever, so I like achieving new firsts … It’s like a bus, you wait for ages for one and then two turn up at once.”
Rose has now closed the gap significantly on his countryman, Fleetwood, as they both strive for the honour of being named Europe’s best player.
The 37-year-old banked 985,495 ranking points from the Rolex Series event to leapfrog Sergio Garcia into second place – and is now just 134,839 points away from the lead with two events remaining.
“It’s in Tommy’s hands still,” Rose said. “He’s definitely a couple of hundred thousand ahead, and I just know I need to play well in Dubai. That’s been my mentality from the outset and it’s not going to change. It’s exciting to be within touching distance.”
Andrew Dodt and Scott Hend were the best of the Australians and each shared a taste of 42nd. Sam Brazel (T52) and Marcus Fraser (T66) followed behind.
The European Tour moves to South Africa this week for the Nedbank Golf Challenge hosted by Gary Player before the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
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