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Rose was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and moved to the United Kingdom at the age of five. Rose burst to prominence at The Open Championship in 1998. As a seventeen year old amateur he holed a dramatic shot from the rough for birdie on the 18th to finish tied for fourth. He turned professional the following week, but initially struggled badly, missing 21 cuts in a row. Rose's career soon began to take off, however, and he became established on the European Tour. He won his first professional event, the Dunhill Championship in South Africa, in 2002, and followed this up with three further victories in that year. In 2003, he reached number 33 in the Official World Golf Rankings. In 2004, he played mainly in America on the PGA Tour, while also maintaining his membership of the European Tour. He did not have a good year, and slipped out of the top 50 in the world rankings. His ranking continued to fall in early 2005, and in March he announced that he was quitting the European Tour and concentrating on playing in the U.S. This had no apparent effect on his poor form, and by the middle of the year he had fallen out of the World Top 100. In August of that year he made an about face by announcing his intention to return to the European Tour. Later the same week he had his best result of the year, leading the Buick Championship after three rounds before slipping to a third place finish. One or two further good results followed late in the 2005 season, and he stayed on the PGA Tour after all. In September 2006 at the Canadian Open, Rose led a PGA Tour tournament going into the final round for the first time. But slipped up with a final round 74 which moved him down the field. He went on to finish 2nd at the FUNAI Classic at the Walt Disney World Resort and finished 47th on the money list with US$1.629 million in prize money. In November 2006 he won the Australian Masters, to claim his first title for four years. His renewed consistency, including a top 5 finish at the 2007 Masters has seen him surpass his previous best world ranking, by reaching number 26 on 8 April 2007. Rose lost in a playoff at the 2007 BMW PGA Championship, but moved into the top twenty of the World Rankings for the first time, and by October had reached a new career high of 12 and became the top ranked British golfer. Rose won the European Tour Order of Merit title for 2007 in a thrilling climax to the season at the Volvo Masters, which he won in a playoff on 4 November. His new world ranking of number 7 made him the top-ranked European golfer for the first time, and he subsequently moved up to sixth in the rankings. He has spent over 30 weeks in the top-10 since 2007. Rose married long-time girlfriend Kate Phillips, a British former international gymnast, in December 2006. They have a house in Lake Nona, Florida, and a riverside flat in the London suburb of Putney. Kate gave birth to their first child, a son named Leo, on 21 February 2009. In 2010, Rose had a third place at the Honda Classic, and then he broke through with a victory at the Memorial Tournament with a final round 66 to win by three strokes over Rickie Fowler. This was his first win on American soil. The next day, Rose had to try to qualify for the U.S. Open, along with runner up Rickie Fowler. Neither qualified which raised questions about the qualifications of the U.S. Open. |
