Justin Rose today hailed rising Scottish star Bradley Neil for the “ballsy” round that earned him promotion to the European Tour at the weekend.

Blairgowrie youngster Neil, the former Amateur champion who is the same management stable as Rose, posted a battling 69 on the last day of the Challenge Tour’s Grand Final in Oman and earned the 15th and last promotion place on offer from the second-tier circuit’s rankings.

In his first 24 events as a professional, Neil made the cut just four times during a tough transition. Rose could sympathise, of course. He missed his first 21 in a row when he joined the paid ranks.

From that torrid start, Rose went on the establish himself as one of the world’s golfing powers and the former US Open champ insists that Neil’s early struggles will stand him in good stead.

Rose, who claimed back-to-back Tour victories last night with a thrilling win in the Turkish Airlines Open, said: “That was absolutely brilliant from Bradley, a real ballsy round. Listen, it (the early struggles) didn't do me too badly.

“Bradley is sticking with it. When I turned pro, I had a three year plan and part of that was to spend a bit of time on the Challenge Tour and earn my stripes there. That was my goal and that's how I thought I'd graduate through. He's following that similar path. Sometimes there's no shortcut. You have to do the hard yards, and he's doing it really well.”

After winning the Amateur Championship in 2014, Neil’s stock was rocketing and he was eventually snapped up by the Excel Sports Management group which also looks after a Tiger Woods.

Rose added: “Paul McDonnell, who has been my best friend since I was 11, is my manager in the UK and he really liked Bradley's game and signed him. It was his first signing. So I’ve always had a kind of added incentive to pull for Bradley.”

Rose birdied three of his last four holes in a closing 65 in Turkey to pip Nicolas Colsaerts and Dylan Frittelli to the title and close the gap on Race to Dubai leader Tommy Fleetwood to just 135,000 points.

Rose is not playing in this week’s Nedbank Challenge, but he will be back for the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai where the rankings race will be decided.

He said: “I set my stall out and I’ll stick to it. I tend not to do four in a row. I know I may be handing Tommy an advantage by not playing in South Africa but it’s still exciting to be within touching distance.”