The calendar year may be winding down, but Justin Rose is hoping to heat up.
Ranked No. 1 as recently as April, Rose enters this week’s WGC-HSBC Champions at No. 8 in the world. That’s his lowest standing in two years, when Rose pulled off a double-dip by winning in Shanghai and capturing the Turkish Airlines Open in consecutive weeks. He followed with a T-4 finish in Dubai to nearly take the European Tour’s season-long prize, and the Englishman is looking to spark a similar rally this week as he returns to Sheshan International Golf Club.
“To be honest, I’ve probably got to win the last three [European Tour events] to challenge Shane [Lowry] and Jon Rahm and the guys that are doing really well, but that’s the situation I put myself in in 2017 and I very nearly did it,” Rose told reporters. “Looking forward to going back to the well and trying again.”
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Rose won earlier this year at Torrey Pines and tied for third at the U.S. Open, but he slowed during the PGA Tour’s postseason and ultimately tied for 26th at the Tour Championship. With this week’s event in a unique position of winding down the European Tour slate while starting Rose’s 2019-20 season on the PGA Tour, he feels some added incentive to continue success on a course where last year he finished third as the defending champion.
“You’ve got to trust your game and you’ve got to trust the fact that you’re going to play well in tournaments that are on your schedule and put yourself eventually in a position come August to be competing well in the FedExCup,” Rose said. “When you’re a couple thousand points behind someone and it’s January, it always feels like a little bit of an uphill battle.”