Early practice makes perfect as Rose takes Boston lead
BOSTON: England’s Justin Rose has set himself the target of FedEx Cup glory after muscling his way to a onestroke lead on day one of the Dell Technologies Championship on Friday.
Rose brilliantly bounced back from missing the cut in last week’s opening event of the play-off series with a bogey-free six-under 65 on the TPC Boston course.
The current World No 4 ended his round just clear of Scotland’s Russell Knox and Mexico’s Abraham Ancer, with the duo signing for five-under 66s.
Rose’s score is his lowest PGA Tour first round in 19-months. He notched birdies on three of his closing four holes to vault up the leaderboard.
“I was very aware that the course was playing trickier than usual so I arrived at the course well before my tee time and just hit some chips and putts, trying to get a feel for the golf course, feel for the greens,” he said.
“I noticed that it was playing tricky out there, for sure. I looked at the pins last night, and I thought there was an opportunity to make some birdies.
“And I was able to go bogey-free today, which I think no one else managed to do. I guess just keeping the card clean made the birdies really count for something.”
Rose had sat out the weekend rounds of the Northern Trust with scores of 72 and 74, the first time he’s missed a cut in 15 Tour events this year.
“In some ways that missed cut helped me from that point of view, changed the mindset a little bit and obviously offered me a chance to go home for six days,” Rose added.
“I only arrived here back in Boston last night. I managed to pretty much have a full week off, which hopefully will pay off, if it’s not this week, next week or the week after.”
He arrived in Boston lying sixth on the FedEx Cup standings and is already projected to move to No 1.
“I am trying to be selfish right now, and focus on these next three tournaments and winning the FedExCup,”
Rose said.
Tiger Woods struggled in hitting only half of the 18 Boston greens to post a oneover-par 72 and a score he shares with likely USA Ryder Cup captain’s pick Phil Mickelson.