ROSE GRABS EUROPEAN TITLE
England's Justin Rose clinched the 2007 European Order of Merit for the first time with victory at the season-ending Volvo Masters.
Rose triumphed in a three-way play-off at Valderrama against compatriot Simon Dyson and Denmark's Soren Kjeldsen to top the Order or Merit for the first time and make him the youngest ever Order of Merit winner since Ronan Rafferty in 1989.
The �666,660 prize fund was enough to leap-frog leader Ernie Els, who was playing in Singapore and Padraig Harrington, who was just �657 ahead of Rose before the weekend's events.
Rose finished the season with �2, 944,945, �448,708 ahead of Els and �481,203 ahead of Open winner Harrington, who's T-4th earned him �184,800.
The 27-year-old Rose came through on the second play-off hole after finishing on one-under 283 alongside Dyson and Kjeldsen although he has been close to losing his grip on the championship earlier in the day.
The Brit dropped four shots in three holes on the back nine to hand Kjeldsen the lead before clawing back the advantage.
Later, Rose conceded that he had done things the hard way at Valderrama.
"I am emotional right now - it was a hard day," said Rose.
"I looked like losing and dug deep. I'm sure there's an easy way to do this stuff, but it was terrible.
"I made a couple of mental errors and even saw the Order of Merit slipping away.
"It's awesome to do it. Knowing that I had was a nice consolation going into the play-off, but I wanted to do it by winning the tournament.
"It's been a long road to get here. You need to win tournaments to be regarded as a great player and it would have been very disappointing if I hadn't won this.
"It's the pinnacle of my career so far."
Following the success, Rose immediately targeted a major victory in 2008.
"I think that's how you're remembered in the game in 20 or 50 years' time," Rose told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"The first port of call is 'he won two majors' or 'he won three majors'.
"To me, it's really important to win a major, that's been a lifelong dream of mine. I've won the Open about 1,000 times on the putting green as a kid. That's what drives me."
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