Saturday 21 November 2015 13:50, UK
Justin Rose's hopes of Race to Dubai victory are over after carding the worst round of his European Tour season during the third day of the DP World Tour Championship.
The world No 5 needed a solo second finish or better in this week's season-finale to have any chance of ending the year as European No 1 for a second time, but plummeted down the leaderboard after a six-over 78 on Saturday.
Rose had felt his game was showing signs of improvement after a second-round 66 kept him in contention, but the recent Hong Kong Open champion lost ground after cancelling out an early birdie at the second with three bogeys on the front nine.
Things got worse for Rose after the turn as he bogeyed the tenth and ran up a double-bogey six at the par-four 12th, before a rare birdie at the 15th was followed by another double at the 17th.
Despite sending his approach in to the par-five last in to the bunker, Rose left himself a birdie chance but two-putted from ten feet.
Rose came in to the week as one of six players who could overtake Rory McIlroy in the standings, although Shane Lowry and Louis Oosthuizen's hopes of finishing 2015 in top spot have also all-but gone.
A final-hole bogey from Oosthuizen left the South African settling for a two-under 70 to leave him 11 strokes off the pace, while Lowry is even further back despite posting his lowest round of the week.
Away from the Order of Merit battle, Matt Fitzpatrick maintained his bid to be the European Tour's rookie of the year with another impressive display in Dubai.
The 21-year-old recovered from a trio of dropped shots around the turn to play his final six holes in four under, with an eagle-two at the 15th and a gain at the last lifting him alongside Danny Willett five strokes off the lead.
"I think if someone had said 11-under after the first three rounds, I'd definitely had taken that," Fitzpatrick said. "I'll be in a good position tomorrow and if I can go out there and shoot a ridiculously low one, you never know.
"I'm just trying to finish as high as I possibly can every week. If the highest I can do is 10 this week or 20th, then that's as high as it goes. We've given it our best and that's all you can do."
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