Exclusive Justin Rose on why Masters heartbreak is driving him on
Justin Rose has drawn strength from his traumatic finish at Augusta, he tells
Amonth on and Justin Rose acknowledges it hurts that there is not a green jacket in his wardrobe. But he is also keen to point out that there is not a straitjacket hanging there, either. The Englishman goes into the first round of The Players here today determined to meet the challenge he has set himself. “My season will not be defined by losing in the Masters play-off,” he says. “I think my year will be remembered for a great thing, or great things, which will happen. And my experience at Augusta last month will help that to occur.”
Golfers always claim that they learn from defeat and swear that the bigger the loss, the bigger the lesson. But with Rose, 36, it is difficult to muster the usual cynicism.
“Yeah, I took a few days imagining how good it would have felt and yeah, I was gutted. I really thought I had it on that Sunday. Honestly, I didn’t feel like anyone was going to beat me. I felt so confident. I was shocked, given it was the last few holes of the Masters, how ice-cold I felt. And that’s what makes me so excited for the majors coming up. When the biggest moments come, I feel most at peace.
“So, straight away I was fine in my heart. There was emotion, but no tears. It didn’t crush me. And I think that’s because I’m positive about what the future still holds. If that proves to be my last chance to win the Masters then hell, yeah, that’ll be the one that got away. But there’s absolutely no point in dwelling on it now. Because you’ll become sucked into it and start reliving it over and over.”
In truth, Sergio García had his breaks. “There were times on that back nine when Sergio rode his luck and in the aftermath it’s hard not to look back. But Henrik [Stenson, the Swede who Rose denied at last year’s Olympics] reminded me that I had that at Rio. I hit it in the bush and managed to get it on the green and make par, then hooked it off the next tee and scampered through a bush on to the next fairway and made par.
“That’s what this sport comes down to sometimes and if you overanalyse the ‘what-ifs’ you’ll go mad. Although there was one shot that kept coming into my mind. That putt on the 18th [in regulation play]. I knew I had it. I’ve had it so many times. I told myself to do the honour of hitting a good putt and
not to let the situation make you hit a poor one.
“And the thing is, I did hit a great putt, so in the days after I did think, ‘Why didn’t it drop? Why?’ But then I thought, ‘It’s not a science I’m dealing with here, it’s golf ’. And you’ve got to learn the lesson and move on.”
In his next major play-off, Rose will know what to do differently. “In that situation, it all happens very quickly: you sign your card, you’re in a buggy and then you’re on the 18th tee again,” he says, reflecting on the slice which led to the bogey. “And what made it worse was that there had been a huge shift on that 18th green in regulation. After I missed that putt there was a deflating moment when I thought Sergio had won. But then he missed his putt and I was alive again. That was when I should have re-energised, pressed the reset switch. That was what I’ll take out of it as a golfer.”
As the game’s all-round good guy, Rose took so much more. With his grace in defeat – “It is good for Sergio finally to have the monkey off his back and I am very pleased for him” – Rose suddenly became the poster boy of how to lose, with articles praising him across the world.
“I had so many texts from friends saying how wonderful my reaction was and, to be honest, I was really surprised. I couldn’t even remember what I’d said on the green and wondered, ‘How profound exactly was it?’ But that can only be a good thing.
“It’s why Nick Price was my favourite golfer growing up. He managed to win majors, get to world No1, but did so with a nice-guy image. He showed that the two are not mutually exclusive. So, being nice in defeat is one part of it, but I also need to continue to be the fearless competitor and to carry on believing that what happened at Augusta means I’m more likely to win a Masters, not less likely.”
Rose is plainly convinced of it, and with his recent record in Georgia, there is little wonder. “I’ve been in the last group twice in the last three years and even in 2016, the year between my two runners-up finishes, I finished 10th, and if I’d birdied either of the last two I would have finished second again.
“I’ve been right there, year after year. Hey, I think I deserve half a jacket. But it’s like [Phil] Mickelson with the US Open [where the American has finished second on six occasions]. There can be tournaments that can be elusive no matter how well you play in them, but there’s no point in thinking, ‘Well, it’s just not to be’ until it’s done and dusted.
“Nothing’s over yet. I’ve got The Players this week, the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth later in the month, and they’re two bucket-list events for me. And after that, there’s the US Open, the Open and the USPGA.
“I think that relative to my normal levels of performance, I am one of the best at being able to raise my game for the majors, and that is what is giving me so much self-belief. If I can win one of the Open and USPGA then I’ll be halfway to a career grand slam and will be going to next year’s Masters, a place where I know can perform, knowing that the dream is on. That is a big carrot.”
Of course, there will be plenty of attention on Rose’s return to Royal Birkdale, the Southport links where he finished fourth as a skinny 17-year-old amateur. Then he suffered the ultimate major hangover after turning professional immediately, missing his first 21 cuts. Four years later, he returned to Birkdale and could not get out of his car, as all the bitter-sweet memories came flooding back.
“Yeah, the media will focus on that Open and the aftermath and write fun stories about me going back there, but I’ve done the whole ‘going back to Birkdale’ thing. I did it at the Open there in 2008. I’ve walked that walk – 1998 is a long and distant memory, and as special as it was, that doesn’t feel like me any more.
“The Masters of 2017 is me, and I will go in focused purely on that Open Championship. Birkdale is one of the greatest courses on the rota and that’s what makes me so keen to play there, not anything that happened almost 20 years ago. For me, this year’s all about what can be – not what was or what could have been.”
‘It didn’t crush me because I’m positive about what the future still holds’