Rose rues scheduling errors

Rose: regrets schedule

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Justin Rose admits that poor scheduling on his part has been one of the key factors behind his disappointing season.

The Englishman came with a superb late run to claim last year's Order of Merit crown - securing the Harry Vardon trophy with a dramatic play-off win at the season-ending Volvo Masters.

However, 12 months on, he returned to defend this week knowing it was only last year's triumph that had earned him a place in the field.

Only the top 60 players on the money list, and the defending champion, are invited to Valderrama and Rose currently finds himself down in 81st.

But any hopes the 28-year-old might have harboured of making a better fist of his Volvo Masters defence than his Order of Merit defence lay in tatters after a forgettable first round of 80 in Cadiz on Thursday.

Rose carded seven bogeys and a triple-bogey eight as he finished on nine-over par and effectively out of contention.

Describing the round as "terrible", he conceded afterwards that he was looking forward to taking a break from the game - that despite having three more appearances before Christmas on his schedule, one of those at next week's HSBC Champions event in Shanghai.

"I'm just playing poorly right now - everything is hard work," he stated. "I can't wait not to play again for a long while."

The poor showing at Valderrama is rather symptomatic of a season that promised so much but failed to hit heights.

Disappointing

Rose feels his scheduling his much to do with a disappointing campaign that has yielded only two top 10 finishes on the US Tour and one in Europe.

"I feel like I've slightly messed up this year a little bit," he continued.

"I feel what worked so well for me last year - taking quite a bit of time off, taking weeks off before majors - has not worked this year.

"It has been stops and starts and I don't feel like I've got a lot of momentum going. That's probably one area I can look at.

"It just goes to show you, you always have to adapt and there's no hard and fast way to do things. Sometimes you need to play your way into a bit of form and I just didn't give myself an opportunity.

"I found I was taking a week off and you come back out and things just didn't click again."