GOLF/British Masters: Justin Rose, house guest of Ian Poulter this week, rather exceeded his welcome yesterday when he stole the British Masters at Woburn from under his host's nose. With a magnificent final round of 65, seven-under par, Rose overtook both Poulter and overnight leader Phillip Price, to win by one with his 19-under-par total of 269.
This is the fourth time this year Rose has won, taking the Dunhill Championship, the Wild Coast Masters in South Africa and the Chunichi Crowns in Japan. But this is by far the weightiest of his victories, coming as it did in a field that contained Colin Montgomerie, Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke. "It's pinch yourself stuff," said a jubilant Rose.
It earned him £208,330, took him to seventh in the Volvo order of merit with £416,342, but it will not get him into the US Open next week. The qualifying period for the American championship ended last week.
The final day at Woburn attracted the same number of spectators as in 2000, 15,000, some achievement given the counter-attractions, and which led to some rarely seen golfing attire. There were England shirts in all of their versions and one player, Steve Webster, had his mother sew the cross of St George on the back of his shirt.
Rose, 21, although born in South Africa, came to England at the age of five, holds only a British passport and, said father Ken yesterday, "sees himself as quintessentially English". At the moment he is easily the best Englishman playing golf, although yesterday Poulter came close.
In fact, at the short 14th, he came very close. The pair were level with each other at the time; Poulter had bunkered his tee-shot, Rose had hit his to 10 feet and there was the potential for a two-stroke swing to Rose. But then Poulter holed from the sand, leaving Rose with a delicate downhiller, with a break of 18 inches, not to go one behind. He holed it and he said afterwards: "That was one of the strokes of my tournament."
The two friends, knocked knuckles together as they left the putting green and Rose said afterwards: "It was a shame there had to be a loser. He is a great competitor and plays with guts, heart and determination. The round was played in an incredible spirit. It's the first time we've been paired together on tour. We said we'd never had so much fun on the course."
Still level on the 16th, Rose hooked his tee-shot into rough while Poulter was down the middle. But while Rose hit the green 20 feet away, Poulter hit a poor second just short of the putting surface, left his first putt six feet short and missed that one with a short, sharp jerk of a stroke.
Eventually Poulter had to birdie the 18th and duly hit his second to seven feet. "I expected him to hole it," said Rose, "he's a ballsy putter. In practice, for £10-20 he invariably gets them in." But yesterday, for £69,450, he missed.
Montgomerie was never in contention, despite a final round of 67 and a 14-under par total of 274. It moves him up to second place in the order of merit with £600,583.
He now has a week off before going to the US Open where he wants to become a part of the "Be Nice To Monty" campaign being mounted by the American magazine, Golf Digest.
