Friday 17 November 2017 06:13, UK
Justin Rose still feels fortunate to be contending for the Race to Dubai title this week after being "off the radar" a month ago.
Rose moved to the top of the projected standings in the battle to end the season as European No 1 after he fired a composed six-under 66 on the opening day of the DP World Tour Championship, while long-time Race to Dubai leader Tommy Fleetwood returned an erratic 73.
Thoughts of claiming a second order of merit crown were far from Rose's mind when he was 10th in the standings heading into the WGC-HSBC Champions, but he followed victory in Shanghai with another win the following week at the Turkish Airlines Open to slash Fleetwood's lead to less than 135,000 points.
Rose opted to miss last week's Nedbank Golf Challenge to ensure he was well rested for the season finale, and the move paid early dividends as he outplayed Fleetwood by seven shots and now becomes the man to beat.
The 37-year-old made his lone mistake with a three-putt bogey at the ninth, but he responded with back-to-back birdies and then holed out from a greenside bunker for an eagle at the long 14th before capping an excellent day with a birdie at the last.
"Really happy with that as a start," said the former US Open champion. "I wanted to come out with good intent and get myself moving forward quickly. I've been fortunate to have won the last two events, but I've done so from quite a long way behind and you can't always rely on that.
"So I was definitely keen to get going as quick as I could this week and see where it goes from here. I'm delighted with the way I played, I don't think I missed a green and I gave myself chances all day. It got a little bit windier and trickier towards the end, but I was really happy the way it turned out."
Asked if he was now the favourite to win the Race to Dubai ahead of Fleetwood, Rose added: "It's probably shifted but tomorrow could be a whole other day.
"I mean, this was not really on the radar a month ago. That's the perspective that I have to keep because it's an opportunity for me. It's certainly easy to start to think about it now as being in my hands, but for me it's still a bonus at this point.
"There's two things to think about this week: winning the golf tournament and winning the Race to Dubai. I know that if I do one of those, the first one, then the second one happens. I've just got to try and put together a really good final three rounds and do what I always do.
"Some weeks it happens, some weeks it doesn't, but right now things are certainly feeling a bit easier than they normally do. But like all these tournaments, you can't win them on Thursday, you can only lose them, and you can't win them tomorrow or Saturday. I've just got to keep myself in position.
"I know the scenarios for the most part, but it's exciting for sure. My job this week is to try to take as many scenarios as out, and just to try to win the tournament. Let's just tee up tomorrow and keep going."
