HAMPSHIRE'S Justin Rose is now, for the first time, the best golfer in England - official.

The 21-year-old's third place finish in the Deutsche Bank-SAP Open in Germany, one stroke behind play-off pair Tiger Woods and Colin Montgomerie, lifted him from 81st to a best-ever 62nd in the world rankings.

At the same time Lee Westwood and Nick Faldo's failure to survive the halfway cut dropped them to 71st and 78th respectively. Last week they were 57th and 75th.

Just over a year ago Westwood was fourth and only 19 months ago Rose was 444th, but their paths have since gone in starkly different directions.

Westwood, European number one two seasons ago, has not tasted victory since the Cisco World Match Play championship at Wentworth in October 2000.

Rose, fourth in the 1998 Open as a 17-year-old amateur, went through the torture of 21 successive missed cuts at the start of his professional career, but the Hook-based player has won twice in South Africa and once in Japan already this year.

To finish just a shot behind the world number one and the seven-time European number one was another huge step up the ladder for the Hampshire youngster.

And Rose could book a place in the US Open next month with a good performance at the Volvo PGA championship starting on Thursday.

He needs to climb into the world's top 50 on Sunday night for that and it will probably require a top-three finish which he is more than capable of.