By all accounts, the 2020 golfing season is going to be so jam-packed it will be a bit like shoving some stuff into a suitcase, sitting on it and hoping the zips don’t burst as you try to close them amid gasps of cursing exertion.

With a condensed series of major championships between April and July, The Players’ Championship in March, one or two WGC events, some Rolex Series thingymebobs, a few FedEx showpieces, the Olympics and a Ryder Cup, you can just about hear the actual calendar creaking and groaning under the strain of this bustling spell.

As he prepares to launch his bid to become just the sixth player to win the same European Tour event for the third year in a row at this week’s Turkish Airlines Open at the Maxx Royal, Rose afforded himself a little keek towards the new year. 

“Next year might be the year when you can’t be all things to all people,” he said of the log-jam. “To try and achieve everything on every tour could be a tricky proposition.” 

In a hectic diary, the Olympics, which Rose won gold at in 2016, is very high up on his list of priorities. While the golfing event at the Tokyo Games starts about a week after the opening ceremony, Rose is determined to immerse himself in the whole adventure. 

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As he did in Rio four years, the Englishman will be present at those initial flag-waving festivities and he would urge the other golfers to buy into the entire experience too. 

“I think being at the opening ceremony was part of the reason why I had that energy to play some of my best golf,” the 39-year-old admitted. “I got inspired to be the best version of myself and I think just the emotion and the connection I got to Team GB by being there in the opening ceremony was huge 
for me.”

At the 2016 Games, Rose took time to watch other athletes perform at the peak of their powers in a variety of disciplines. It was an eye-opening and educational experience. 

READ MORE: Drysdale hopes to take flight in Turkey

“We went to watch the gymnastics and I could not believe the chaos that they perform in and around,” he reflected. “The noise, the announcements, the movement of other disciplines going on, trainers literally walking around the bars while someone else is running at the vault.  

“And this is four years of blood, sweat and tears, and they have to perform and execute their moves in this chaos. I thought, ‘God, we’re soft as golfers’. I mean a marshal takes one step in the wrong direction on a golf course and he gets it. 

“So I learned from that in Rio. Maybe 70, 80 per cent of the crowd weren’t necessarily that familiar with golf.  There were a lot of cameras, there was a lot of noise, there was a lot of movement.  

“So my pre-shot routine was like [a gymnast] running for the vault.  Once I started, nothing was going to stop me and I was going to play through anything that happened. I learned something from another discipline that helped me. 

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“I think the rugby sevens lads too kind of made me wish I was a team sport player because the camaraderie in the gym, I could see how much they were getting out of themselves by being slapped in the face while doing a bench press by team-mates. 

“They were like ‘come on, one more, one more, one more’. There was the mentality of being pushed to do one more by your team-mates.  I felt that was a lot easier than having to do it for yourself.”

READ MORE: Rose retains Turkish Airlines Open title

Rose is back in a happy hunting ground this week and while his previous two Turkish Airlines Open wins in 2017 and 2018 were at the nearby Regnum Carya venue, the world No.8 did finish third over the Maxx Royal course in the 2013 edition of the championship

Ernie Els, Nick Faldo, Tiger Woods, Ian Woosnam and Colin Montgomerie are the only other players to have won the same title in three successive years but Rose is well aware that completing a notable hat-trick will not be an easy task.

“You win back to back on a certain golf course and you would rather it was the same venue again,” said Rose, who has a had a relatively low-key season by his own lofty standards even though he did win on the PGA Tour back in January and was tied third in the US Open.

“But last year was a first for me to defend [a title] and now it offers me the opportunity to go three in a row and be in some illustrious company. It’s definitely a focus for me and an inspiration.”