BACK-TO-BACK wins for Justin Rose were the last thing Tommy Fleetwood wanted in the battle to win the Race to Dubai, but Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn could not have been happier.
Rose was a distant 10th on the money list before banking more than 2.3 million points with victories in China and Turkey to slash Fleetwood’s lead and set up a desert showdown in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.
And with both wins counting towards Ryder Cup qualification, Rose is already close to sealing his place on the European side which will look to regain the trophy at Le Golf National in Paris next year.
“You look at your top players and think with the way they’ve played the last few years they’ll be there, but they only need to go a little bit off and then the pressure from behind comes through,” said Bjorn.
“You want to get a couple of your top players off to a start and for Justin especially it was a crucial time for him. With his schedule he doesn’t want to be playing catch-up at all. He wants to get it out of the way.”
In contrast to Rose, Rory McIlroy is currently 23rd in the standings and will not play again until January after taking a lengthy break to fully recover from a rib injury.
But Bjorn believes that break is exactly what the former world No 1 needs.
“Rory’s not a concern in the sense that I think he needed this. He’s been playing catch-up all year; he gets to the biggest tournaments in the world, he hasn’t practised, he hasn’t been fit and then he’s playing catch up.”
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