Frustration gets better of Rose

Justin Rose displayed a rare flash of temper today as he battled to catch playing partner Retief Goosen in the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open in Hamburg.

Goosen, joint overnight leader with Ireland’s Padraig Harrington, birdied three of his first holes to move clear in the race for the €457,185 first prize.

At one under par Rose found himself nine shots adrift and although he reduced that by two when he birdied the long 15th and the South African bogeyed the next his annoyance boiled over on the 17th.

Unsure about his caddie Mick Doran’s advice to lay up with a five iron on the par five the 22-year-old went along with the idea, but after hitting the shot slung the club back over to his bag.

The divot then followed and when it almost hit Doran there was an exchange of words between the two as they marched down the fairway.

This time last year Rose was battling for the title with Tiger Woods and Colin Montgomerie, eventually missing out on their play-off by just one shot.

Soon afterwards he had his fourth win of the season at the British Masters, but he has not won since and has not had a top-10 finish for three months.

Goosen led by three when he reached 10 under, but he followed his bogey at the 16th with another on the 468-yard 18th, again finding a bunker.

It left the former US Open champion, leading money-winner in Europe for the last two years, holding just a one-stroke advantage over not only Harrington - among the day’s later starters – but also Swede Niclas Fasth and Spaniard Miguel Angel Jimenez.

Nick Faldo, seeking his first win in Europe since 1994, was one shot further back after going to the turn in 32 with birdies at the 11th, 13th, 15th and 18th.

World number one Woods, chasing a third successive victory in the event and a fourth in five years, began with a bogey-free 69 yesterday to trail Goosen and playing partner Harrington by four.

He was joint 15th overnight and likely to be considerably lower than that by the time he teed off again at 1pm local time.

Woods was hoping for more success at Gut Kaden than he had in Hamburg’s city centre last night.

Among six stars taking part in a “beat the pro” competition close to one of the main shopping centres Woods hit two of his three shots to the floating green 70 yards away into the water.

Bernhard Langer won the event and of the six pros – Thomas Bjorn, Rose, Ty Tryon and Goosen were the others – Woods finished last.

Latest leaderboard:

T1 KARLSSON -9 18

T1 O'MALLEY -9 18

T1 GOOSEN -9 15

4 LAWRIE -8 15

T5 FASTH -7 18

T5 BENNETT -7 18

T5 CASEY -7 17

T5 FALDO -7 16

T5 TUNNICLIFF -7 16

T5 LAWRIE -7 14

Irish players:

T6 HARRINGTON -7 13.00

T15 CLARKE -5 13.10