JUSTIN ROSE regained his appetite for golf in the sun at Wentworth yesterday and went so close to completing a what would have been an astonishing comeback in the Cisco World Match Play Championship.

For long stages the young Hamp-shire star trailed former champion Vijay Singh by three holes.

Three times he clawed his way back to within one of the big, elegant Fijian, and on the 36th and last green, he had the chance to take Singh to a play-off.

But his six-foot birdie putt, although hit straight, reared up out of the hole and Singh breathed a huge sigh of relief from as he put it "a lucky escape."

Since his father died after a long battle against leukaemia in September, Rose says he's struggled to get fired up over anything but he admits the cut and thrust of matchplay got him pumped up again.

He said: "Wentworth's near where we live and from about ten years old I used to come up with my pack of sandwiches and watch heroes like Greg Norman and Nick Faldo. It was a dream come true to play in the championship."

What really sparked Rose yesterday was the fact that he was unable to make an impression on the clinical Singh during the first half of their 36-hole contest.

"I missed a lot of greens and had to chip and putt to stay with Vijay. But I wasn't making enough birdies and I knew I had to be more aggressive when I played him in the afternoon."

From almost being four down when Singh missed a very makeable eagle putt on the 17th, Rose had cut the gap to one hole by the time they came off the fifth green second time out.

Singh slapped him down by taking the next two to go back to three up, but Rose, with the adrenaline pumping again, twice forced himself back to within one of his rival who was clearly rattled as they played out their dramatic finale on the last green.

When he himself missed from around eight feet, former Masters and US PGA champion Singh believed Rose would sink his putt and take it to a play off.

Luck wasn't on Rose's side. Four crucial putts lipped out of the hole, the first at the short fifth in the morning where, after Singh holed a 20 foot birdie putt, Rose looked to follow suit from 15 feet but stared in anguish as the ball rolled around the hole.

At the next short hole, the tenth, Rose missed the green left, paid for it with his first bogey of the day and was two down. He missed a ten foot chance to close the gap at the 13th before Singh's approach to the 16th left him a six-foot birdie chance which he coolly accepted.

When they walked off the 18th green for a spot of lunch, Singh was six under par, Rose three under. Some 18 holes later both players had moved to eight under - that's how close it was.

Rose needed a a quick break and he got one at the third where he holed out from ten feet and Singh missed from eight.

When he holed a 15-footer at the short fifth, Rose was just one back. Singh bounced back with a birdie at the sixth and when Rose three putted from the lower tier of the seventh green the gap was back to three.

And so it went on. Singh missed out from five feet at nine, Rose holed out from ten yards at ten. It was to amand from until the bitter end for Rose who even as a first round loser went home £50,000 richer.

Elsewhere on the course Padraig Harrinton beat Mike Weir and Colin Montgomerie toppled Fred Fund but Nick Faldo and Michael Campbell went into overtime today, their match still unresolved after 42 holes.

Matthew Blackey from Hayling Island shot an opening round 65 yesterday to have a share of the lead in the Fortis Bank Open at Nijmegen in Holland in the latest PGA European Challenge Tour event.