JUSTIN Rose, who turned 27 on Monday, gave himself a late birthday present with second place behind world number one Tiger Woods in the WGC Bridgestone Invitational.

Starting today's final round tied for 11th, the Hampshire player shot an excellent 68 (-2) to add to earlier scores of 69, 72 and 71 to finish in second alongside overnight leader Rory Sabbatini.

Woods romped to victory by eight shots after a closing 65 to win the event for the third consecutive year but was matched by Rose on the front nine, both shooting 31, although the latter had suspected that starting out on two over was too far back to have a chance of winning and so it proved.

Nevertheless, second place was worth having. Sharing it with Sabbatini earned him more than £300,000 and will take him into the world's top 20 - as well as through $2m in US PGA Tour earnings in 2007.

Rose, who had chances to win the Masters and US Open this year, demonstrated once more what an improved player he is.

He holed from nearly 20ft at the first, chipped to five feet for another birdie at the second and hit his tee shot on the 200-yard fifth to six feet.

A 30-footer then found the target on the eighth, and although he did bogey the 11th after pulling his drive into the rough and dropped another shot on the 14th, all the others chasing the runners-up spot made mistakes as well.

Rose knew the importance of getting up and down from a greenside bunker at the last, splashed out to 10ft and made it.

Chris DiMarco was level with him on the final tee, but found the same trap and missed his 12ft par attempt.

Rose commented: "I'm excited now. That last putt was big emotionally. Even par was a really good score this week.

"I didn't look at scoreboards and at the turn I thought if I could go under par on the back nine I would have a chance of winning.

"Then I did look at a scoreboard and saw Tiger."

Don't miss Tuesday's golf pages for a preview of the US PGA Championship, in which Justin Rose will be competing.