Rose keeps one eye on race for world No 1 spot
Eagle helps Englishman to opening round of 68 Top-ranked Johnson has share of clubhouse lead
Justin Rose confessed that the chance to climb to world No1 was “on my mind’ during the first round of The Players Championship here, but then, after looking at the leaderboard and spotting Dustin Johnson’s ominous progress, a new thought suddenly monopolised his consciousness.
“I realised that unless I got going I could be falling even further behind him in the rankings,” he said.
Rose was true to his ambition. A four-under 68 left him only two behind Dustin Johnson, who is in a six-man share of the lead alongside Matt Kuchar, Alex Noren, Patrick Cantlay, Webb Simpson and Chesson Hadley.
Four players have the opportunity to depose Johnson here on the Stadium Course – Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm and Jordan Spieth are the others – but as Rose indicated it is far from a foregone conclusion that there will a usurpation.
“I saw Dustin getting to four, five, six under and I thought I better play well this week to not go miles behind him again’, said Rose. “Obviously it’s all well and good talking about it in the build-up, but if he wins then he’s off and gone again. He’s been there for, what? Fifteen months. If you can keep it for more than a year, you’re a pretty undisputed world No 1.”
He played with countrymen Tommy Fleetwood (69) and Ian Pouter (70) and the morning was highlighted by Rose’s eagle on the par-four 12th, his third hole. A wedge from 98 yards took one bounce before checking and dropping. From there, he made four birdies, but a lot of his good work was undone by the three bogeys.
“Those bogeys halted a great round, but it’s not easy out there to keep a clean sheet. So I’m very happy with this opening. It was fun playing with Tommy and Poults. I don’t think I’ve played in the US in an all-english three-ball before.”
To leapfrog Johnson, Rose needs to win and Johnson to finish outside the top six. He would also require Thomas, Spieth and Rahm to underperform. The first two of that trio kept up their side of the bargain by shooting a 73 and 75 respectively, while Rahm fired a 68.
For Spieth this was another desperate display on a layout where he has missed his past three cuts. He was two-over after four holes despite eagling the 12th (his third) and hit three balls in the water.
The 24-year-old’s troubles were in stark contrast to Johnson’s uncomplicated 66. Six birdies, no bogeys and a welcome departure from his Sawgrass norm. Johnson has never managed a top-10 finish in nine appearances, but that was no distraction. And neither was conjecture about him losing his crown.
“I enjoy being No1 and want to stay there, I don’t care what people are talking about, it doesn’t bother me,” Johnson said. “I just want to play good golf.”
He has hardly been playing poorly – chalking up four top 10s since prevailing in Hawaii in his first start of 2018 – but has felt his putting has held him back. To fix it, Johnson switched to a putter which he described as being “halfway between a blade and a spider”.
Rory Mcilroy has also been struggling on the greens – particularly in his final round at the Masters – and a report in the US said he has split with putting coach Phil Kenyon. However, it was his driving which was the weakness in his 71, as he hit just six fairways.
Nevertheless Mcilroy still outscored playing partners Thomas and Spieth and that had plenty to do with his chip-in on the fourth from a seemingly impossible position.
Tiger Woods gave notice of how treacherous the drive on the 18th can be as he found the water, but he escaped with a bogey five and a 72. That was five better than playing partner Phil Mickelson, who dropped seven shots in four holes from the 14th.