Forgotten man on a mission to remind the world he is a force to be feared
Was in a minority of one expecting big things this week but he confounded doubters with a scintillating first round
Augusta may have “bitten back” yesterday, its crusty greens and devilishly firm fairways laying waste to reputations and betting slips in equal measure. But one man was not for squirming.
Justin Rose flew completely under the radar in the build-up to this Masters. A back injury forced the 40-year-old to withdraw from last month’s Arnold Palmer Invitational early in the third round.
Perhaps the memory of his final hole at Bay Hill – a quintuple-bogey nine on the par-four third – clouded the minds of pundits, making them forget just what a good player the Englishman has always been at Augusta.
He reminded us yesterday. While pre-tournament favourites Bryson Dechambeau, Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas were struggling to break par, Rose was busy tearing the course to shreds.
The 2013 US Open champion’s 65 was all the more remarkable for the fact that he was two over through seven. Rose proceeded to hit an eagle and seven birdies in his final 11 holes. His score was only two shots off the course record on a day when only two other players broke 70. Extraordinary.
The truth is, no one saw it coming. No one except for Rose. In a fascinating interview with The Daily Telegraph last week, he revealed that he had been playing practice rounds in his head for weeks. And what is more, he had been playing rather well.
“I have [played] in my head, in real time, sat in my trophy room for inspiration, visualising each shot and what it will be like,” he said. “The sights, sounds and smells. I play maybe four holes at a time and, yes, I do invariably play them well.”
Rose added that playing rounds in your head did not always work as a tactic. “There is a great story of [South African player] Jeff Hawkes, who had to give up visualising rounds when he kept shooting 74 in them,” he said. “I do have good memories of Augusta, though.”
Rose drew heavily on that data bank yesterday. Bogeys at the first and seventh had left him two over par, but his round really got going when he eagled the 570-yard parfive eighth, his 211-yard second shot taking a friendly bounce off a greenside mound and nestling nine feet from the pin.
He duly accepted the gift and never looked back.
Rose’s other main point in his Telegraph interview last week concerned the power-hitters these days. Rose not only questioned their longevity, he said he favoured brains over brawn, saying he took inspiration from the likes of Lee Westwood, who he said had been playing with “wisdom and experience and gratitude” and encouraged youngsters to follow the example of Collin Morikawa and Tommy Fleetwood, rather than bombers such as Dechambeau and Cameron Champ.
Rose averaged 281 yards on drives yesterday, around 10 yards less than the norm. But he hit 78 per cent of fairways, 72 per cent of greens in regulation and putted like a dream,
a 26-footer on 10 setting him up for an assault on Amen Corner. While Dechambeau was deploying Hail Marys left, right and centre, Rose was sticking to chapter and verse. It was almost as if he was in a trance.
“I guess the good news is I don’t know what happened,” he admitted afterwards. “That’s often when you play your best golf. I didn’t panic. I guess that was key. Even though I saw some red numbers on the board [through seven], this was a day not to play yourself out of the tournament.
“The golf course had a lot of teeth to it, the pins were relatively fair so good golf shots were rewarded if you were able to hit them. Listen, to be nine under from my last 11, you can never quite see that coming here at Augusta National. I guess it happened because I didn’t panic being two over through seven.”
Can he keep it up? Only time will tell, but Rose’s record at Augusta suggests he will not fall away in a hurry. He played his first 13 Masters without missing a cut and has twice finished runner-up, of course, in 2015 and 2017, when he memorably lost in a play-off to Sergio Garcia.
“The way the golf course is playing, you have to respect it so much more and obviously you had to have it in November – we would all much rather play than not play – but this place is incredibly different at different times of year,” he concluded of his first-round experience.
“This is Augusta National that has teeth, a little bit of a swirling wind like at No 12 today – classic wind in off the right and you never know. So there were a lot of situations today that reminded me of Augusta in years past and I guess drawing off the memory banks is fun round here.”
If he carries on playing on autopilot, he just might just come out on top on Sunday.