Ready to fight hard for top-dog tag

Philip Reidtalks to Justin Rose about the huge honour of topping the Order

In a way, Justin Rose has undergone an epiphany. For the past few years, he didn't even take up membership of the PGA European Tour. But, now that he has embraced the concept, primarily with the aim of playing in the Ryder Cup, the South African-born Englishman is determined to end the season, as he puts it, as "top dog".

This is Rose's 12th appearance on the European Tour this season, meaning he fulfils his card-carrying commitments with no room to spare. That he should also be in contention to top the money list from so few appearances is in fact quite an achievement in itself; and one that only worked its way into his consciousness when he finished runner-up to Tiger Woods at the Bridgestone Invitational in August and lodged a wad of prize-money as a consequence.

"By winning the Order of Merit, it means you've been the top dog in Europe for that year and I think that's a huge, huge honour really. It's something that players have fought hard for in the past. Obviously, Monty (Colin Montgomerie) protected it and guarded it and fought hard for it for many years . . . so, yeah, it's completely a goal of mine and something that, to be honest, a few years ago I didn't think I was necessarily capable of (achieving). To have this opportunity now is exciting."

Rose, who is third in the money list behind leader Ernie Els and second-placed Pádraig Harrington, has manoeuvred his way into a challenging position to top the money list despite an early season hampered by injuries that forced him to play only sparingly.

Still, he has now moved to 12th in the official world rankings and has manfully juggled his playing responsibilities to both the PGA Tour and the European Tour.

"It's been really good for me to rejoin the European Tour this year, for a lot of reasons. One is obviously because of the Ryder Cup, but also just for my own peace of mind . . . I've always seen myself as a player that wanted to play both tours and, without being in the world's top 50 and quite comfortably inside it, that's a tough thing to commit to."

Now that he has discovered the trick of combining playing on both sides of the Atlantic, Rose envisages a similar schedule next season that is geared mainly towards the US for much of the season (where the world golf championships and the US majors also count towards the European Tour), before a late-season stint in Europe to bring him up to the required number of tournaments.

"My schedule next year will be based purely around when I feel is going to help me play the best and I'm obviously looking at being 100 per cent fit starting next year. That's my goal now through the next three months and therefore not having to worry about my schedule."

For the next four days, however, his goal will be on the Volvo Masters - "this tournament was always my priority" - and on the possibility of challenging for the money title. For today's first round, he will have Harrington for company. He wouldn't mind if the two were still locked together and in the final pairing come Sunday.

"That would be brilliant, I hope it comes down to something like that."