Rose is reunited with old foe Storm (From The Northern Echo)

Rose is reunited with old foe Storm

10:16am Wednesday 18th November 2009

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IN the early hours of tomorrow morning, two old friends will be reunited on the golfing circuit. Unlike 15 years ago, when the pair competed at junior level, Graeme Storm and Justin Rose will be going for glory in the inaugural Dubai World Championship.

They are in the sixth pairing due to tee off at 4.30am and both have every intention of making sure the first season of the newly-named European Tour ends on a personal high.

Neither Storm nor Rose can propel themselves to the top of the Race to Dubai rankings, but it getting their hands on a cheque of more than £740,000 by winning the end of season showpiece at the Earth Course in Dubai would make up for that.

While Rory McIlroy, Lee Westwood, Martin Kaymer and Ross Fisher are all in contention to be at the forefront of European golf come Sunday night, their two colleagues are looking to spoil their fun in the Middle East.

Regardless of where they finish this weekend, Storm and Rose will have boosted their earnings quite significantly, which is a reward for a year in which they have successfully retained their places in the top 60 on the Tour.

Hartlepool’s Storm starts these four days in 50th place, with his former England Juniors team-mate, who spends much of his time in the United States, a position better off.

“I know that I have not achieved what I wanted to achieve this year,” said Storm, who has not won an event since he succeeded at the French Open in the summer of 2007. “But I have to be satisfied that I have retained my position in the top 60 and for the fifth year in a row I have qualified for the last event.

“Ideally I would have liked to have won another title, that goes without saying, but I also have to look at things as they are and personally I think I have played pretty well and pretty consistently this year.

“What has been frustrating is that it has been one round that has tended to hold me back at quite a few tournaments, quite often it has been the third round on a Saturday.

I don’t know why.

“Maybe it has been because I have been putting too much pressure on myself to make the cut and when I have done that I relax a bit too much. I’m not sure. It’s certainly something I’m looking into.

“It’s just a shame that I have not been able to finish things off. If I had been able to then I would have turned more top 30 finishes into top ten and top five finishes. But it’s not all bad, I just have to work on that for next year.”

But all eyes are on the order of merit, with Westwood eyeing the summit of European golf.

And Westwood’s father could be celebrating in the Middle East this weekend even if the world number five fails in his bid to regain the European number one title.

Westwood, champion in 2000, fell nearly £115,000 behind Rory McIlroy by finishing well down the field in last week’s Hong Kong Open - an event he now wishes he had not bothered with.

Victory on Sunday, however, would give him the crown again whatever McIlroy does and even a seventh place finish would be good enough if the 20-year-old Northern Irishman puts in a bad display.

Westwood is concentrating on his game rather than working out all the permutations - and does not think his dad, a retired maths teacher, has had his calculator out either.

“He’s more worried about his Race to Dubai fantasy league than mine,” he joked.

With a 15-strong team named “Westyswonders”

John Westwood lies seventh in a league of thousands with imaginary earnings of almost £16m entering the last leg.

His hopes of catching the leader are pinned on Henrik Stenson and Ernie Els, but good though the prize is – a holiday in Dubai for two and a set of irons – it hardly compares to what his son is in contention for.

The tournament first prize, even with a 25 per cent cut because the sponsor has financial worries, is over £740,000 and whoever wins the Order of Merit will collect a bonus of almost £900,000.

One putt at the end of the final round could therefore be worth more than £1.6m.

“I’d like to have about a 15- shot lead with one hole to play,” stated Westwood, dismissing the idea that part of him would like it to go to the wire.

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