Medinah repeat enables Rose to edge out Westwood

Rose had got the better of Westwood in the round-robin stages at Antalya Golf Club, shooting a round of 66 on his way to three wins out of three in Group Two before beating 14-time major winner Tiger Woods in the semi-finals.

The Englishman again carded a round of 66 to win by a single shot, with Westwood unable to reproduce the form that saw him shoot 64 in his final group match and then a stunning round of 61 a few hours later in his semi-final win over former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel.

Rose never trailed after holing from 25 feet for birdie on the first, but saw a two-shot lead cut in half on the 16th when he surprisingly missed from three feet for birdie after Westwood had holed from three times the distance.

Rose responded superbly with a long-range birdie two on the 17th, evoking memories of his monster putt on the same hole at Medinah as he birdied the last two holes to beat Phil Mickelson in the singles.

“I hit a poor putt on 16 and Lee flipped the script on me,” said Rose.

“I thought his ball was in the hazard – it was actually plugged in the rough – and then he makes four and I make five, and from that moment on it’s going to be a tight finish.

“He hit a great shot into 17 and I really felt like I needed to make that putt, and the 17th against Phil came to mind, just drawing on positive experiences.”

Rose has now won more than 3m US dollars in four weeks after claiming 1.6m US dollars for finishing second in the Tour Championship the week before the Ryder Cup.

He admitted his wife Kate might be upgrading the plans for the house they are having built in the Bahamas after his lucrative end to the season.

“I think the Tour Championship sparked the good play for sure,” added Rose. “I had not had a good FedEx Cup play-off run until then, it was nice to get in contention.

“I played in the last group every day in the Tour Championship and that’s something I really enjoyed. That prepared me well for the Ryder Cup and I came off that with great feelings, the most amazing pressure putts of my life, and the 17th green has been really good to me again this week.”

Westwood had to settle for “just” 1m US dollars as runner-up, but was delighted to have quickly hit top form ahead of a busy end to the season.

“We both played really well, the slight difference was on the greens,” said Westwood. “Justin rolled in a couple of 20-footers, one crucial one on 17, and the longest I made was nine feet on 16. I left a lot of chances out there.”