Jason Scrivener will forgo the defence of his New South Wales Open crown this week after playing his way into the second week of the European Tour finals series at the Turkish Airlines Open.
It will be a brief return to the top spot for Rose, however, as the closeness of the Official World Golf Ranking points system ensures Brooks Koepka will be No.1 again this time next week.
The win is only the Spaniard’s third (the Singapore Masters on the Asian Tour is the other) since he donned the green jacket at Augusta National 18 months ago.
Victorian Lucas Herbert will join the ranks of the top 100 players in the world for the first time in his career after another stellar showing on the European Tour.
While the tour is to be commended for trying something like this, where pace of play is overtly enforced, it’s little more than symbolic without the tour’s top golfers participating in the endeavour.
Joost Luiten’s winning edge at the close of the European Tour’s inaugural NBO Oman Open was a reasonably comfortable two shots. But it was even closer than that.