Justin Rose has forged an alliance with top British athletics coach Frank Dick which he believes will help him remain on top of his sport for the next 20 years.

The Hampshire star, the leading Englishman on this year's European Tour Order of Merit, has accepted the captaincy of the newly-formed Harborough Club in Leicestershire's Stapleford Park, which numbers Dick among its coaching staff.

He accepts that fitness is not currently a strong part of his game, which has rapidly improved this year and swept him to four individual tournament victories.

Rose, 22, could hardly have a better mentor than Dick, British athletics' director of coaching from 1976-1984 and the man widely credited with being behind Daley Thompson's rise to Olympic gold.

Rose said: "I want to be consistently successful for the rest of my career and make sure I am in top condition for the next 20 years.

"I have always been very aware that fitness has been a weaker area of my game and something to improve upon.

"Until now I have never found anybody who can take me on and give me a programme and point the way forward in terms of my fitness.

"Now I am surrounding myself with people I can trust. I know that fitness is not necessarily the be-all and end-all but it can certainly help with prolonging my career."

But Rose insisted that a lack of fitness had not been an issue surrounding his difficult start to life among the professionals, when he missed 21 consecutive cuts after bursting onto the scene as an amateur in the 1998 Open.

"I don't really remember much about the missed cuts now and it all seems like such a long time ago.

"It's been a lot of the little things that have made such a big difference in my improvement, and I have put it down to confidence more than anything.

"This year I don't particularly feel much better than last year but I have taken my chances, finished the job off and all that comes through experience."