Justin Rose is European golf’s new number one, eight years on from looking like he might never make it as a professional.

But how Rose had to work the Volvo Masters as well at Valderrama today, going from four clear to one behind before beating Simon Dyson and Soren Kjeldsen with a 14-foot birdie putt on the second hole of a sudden death play-off.

Rose, still an amateur and only 17 when he came a magical fourth in the 1998 Open, began his pro career with an unbelievable 21 successive missed cuts and had to wait 11 months to earn his first penny on the course.

But today he leapt from third to first on the Order of Merit with over £2million with a victory which also takes him into the world’s top 10 for the first time.

“I am emotional right now,” he said. “It was a hard day. 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.”

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