Rose Beats Westwood; Earns Cool $1.5 Million in Turkey


Justin Rose carded a 5-under 66 to overcome fellow Englishman Lee Westwood and win the Turkish Airlines World Golf Final. Rose took home $1.5 million of the $5.2-million purse in the eight-player exhibition at Atalya Golf Club.

Rose won all four of his previous matches in the medal match-play format. The 32-year-old birdied the first hole in Friday's finale and never trailed his 39-year-old opponent, a fellow teammate on European Ryder Cup team, which beat the Americans two weeks ago in Chicago.

Westwood, who posted a 67, birdied the 16th hole to get within a stroke of Rose. But on the next hole, the 17th where a day earlier he chipped in to beat Tiger Woods, Rose sank a 20-foot birdie putt to seal the victory.

"The 17th green has been really good to me this week as I holed my second shot there yesterday and, of course, the 17th at Medinah turned around my match against Phil (Mickelson)," said Rose. "But you have to be pleased to go through this whole week after winning all my five matches."

The payday is the largest of Rose's 14-year pro career. "To not get beaten at all in the group stage and then to win the two finals is a great feeling and it's been a great week," Rose said.

"My golf is just so consistent at the moment and the main thing is that I just don't have any skeletons in the closet, and I don't have that loose shot that is plaguing me all the time."

Even though he finished second, Westwood didn't go home empty-handed, earning $1 million as the runner-up after three days of competition. "We both played well with just the slight difference on the greens," Westwood said.

"Justin rolled some 20-footers, another crucial one at 17 while the longest putt I made was eight or nine feet on 16. So I left a lot of chances out there but that is the way it goes."

Woods was reportedly paid $3 million to participate in the tournament. For making it to the semis, he took home an additional $600,000. No. 1-ranked Rory McIlroy, who lost all three of his matches, left Turkey with $300,000, the minimum payout for the event that also included Charl Schwartzel, Hunter Mahan, Matt Kuchar and Webb Simpson.