GOLF:The road to greatness is rarely a smooth one, as Justin Rose discovered in a roller-coaster final round of the Volvo Masters yesterday. If there were occasions when it seemed as if he had taken a wrong turn, or times that he'd blindly stumbled into unknown territory in his quest to win the tournament and with it the PGA European Tour Order of Merit, Rose eventually reached his final destination in safety to achieve his dual targets.

In a drama-filled final day, Rose - a 27-year-old Englishman who suffered 21 missed cuts in succession at the start of his career - claimed the biggest win of his career with a 15-foot birdie at the second play-off hole to defeat Simon Dyson and Soren Kjeldsen after the trio had finished locked together on 283, one under par.

Two Irishmen, Pádraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell, finished tied-fourth - two shots adrift - but, in the process, experienced rather different emotions.

For Harrington, who had started the day four shots behind Rose, it was a case of a lost opportunity. Needing to finish ahead of Rose and in the top three to retain his European Tour money title, Harrington shot a final-round 72, for 285, to fall short on both counts.

"I'm disappointed in the way it happened as opposed to anything else. It would have been easier to take if Justin had finished four or five under . . . it's a missed opportunity and one of those things I'll look back on," said Harrington.

For the fourth straight day, a stiff wind worked its way through the cork trees to make scoring difficult, though McDowell found a way to keep the putter in his bag when recording an albatross two on the par-five 17th, only to incur a double-bogey six on the 18th en route to a 68, for 285. It gave him a cheque - like Harrington's - for €184,800, moving him to 37th in the season's final money list.

Harrington's bid to successfully defend his money title proved to be in vain, and he wasn't helped by a cold putter - he took 30 putts in the final round, crucially missing birdie chances on the last two holes - while his focus was also affected by an incident involving his playing partner, Martin Kaymer.

That incident occurred on the fourth hole when the German was allowed take a penalty drop in an area Harrington believed to be incorrect.

Refusing to elaborate on the circumstances, Harrington insisted, "I have nothing to say."

But the Dubliner had clearly been troubled by the incident and did concede he had been "in the zone" before that disputed drop and wasn't thereafter. "The rest was a struggle," he added.

Even so, Harrington had birdie chances on the back nine as the wheels came off for Rose and what had been a stroll turned into a laboured walk. When Rose birdied the ninth hole to move to five under, it meant he was four shots clear of his nearest pursuer, Kjeldsen, and six strokes clear of Harrington.

It all changed over the back nine, as Rose dropped four shots in four holes. On the 11th, he suffered a double-bogey seven after a poor lay-up saw him finish up in a fairway bunker.

It was the start of a catalogue of poor shots that included clipping the lip of the trap with his third shot and then finding a greenside bunker with his fourth.

On the way to his other win of the season, in the Australian Masters almost 12 months ago, Rose had suffered a triple bogey down the stretch when also hitting the lip of a bunker. After it happened on the 11th yesterday, bad thoughts crept into his mind.

"I thought, 'oh, no, it's coming back to haunt me,'" he said.

Further bogeys at the 13th and 14th brought Rose back to those in pursuit, and when McDowell had an albatross on the 17th he briefly moved into a share of the lead (with Rose, Dyson and Kjeldsen) on one under, until his playing partner, Kjeldsen, birdied the penultimate hole to move to two under.

The roars that accompanied McDowell's albatross drifted back to Rose, who looked at one of the scoreboards by the 16th.

"I actually looked like losing the Order of Merit as well as the tournament. I saw G Mc had made an albatross, that Pádraig was maybe going to even par up in front of me. Simon Dyson was going to one under. Soren was two under. It looked like I was going very much in the wrong direction."

In a dramatic finale, Kjeldsen bogeyed the 18th and McDowell slipped back to what would be a tie for fourth with Harrington after he double-bogeyed the last.

Then, Rose and Dyson birdied the 17th, only to hand back the shots with bogeys on the 18th.

It meant Rose, Dyson and Kjeldsen returning for a sudden-death play-off, which Rose finally won with a birdie on the 10th hole, the second in the play-off.

Rose, who moved up to a career-high seventh in the world rankings after the win, won the Order of Merit in just 12 appearances on the European Tour.

He had never led the money race until when it mattered most: after the final event.

"I've been hoping for this moment all week," said Rose. "But, obviously, the only way you get here is by going shot-for-shot and with hard work. Today was, again, a grind.

"Certainly, I don't like to make things easy for myself.

"It's such a relief to have won the tournament; it's just the icing on the cake for an incredible year. It's a huge honour to be the Order of Merit champion, the European number one."