Rosy outlook
Red-hot Brit has new take on Shinnecock
Justin Rose remembered his f irst U.S. Open, which came at Shinnecock Hills in 2004, and as well as missing the cut, he remembered disliking the golf course. But a lot has changed since then and the return of the Open this week.
“I did play in 2004, didn’t have the fondest of memories of the place, but that actually changed,” Rose said on the eve of his firstround pairing with Jimmy Walker and Louis Oosthuizen at 7:29 a.m. Thursday. “I think it was 2012, I believe it was, that I came back here and just played with a couple of members and saw the course more width-wise as we’re seeing this week, and it completely changed my impression of the whole golf course. It went from being not a very fun experience to actually, wow, now I see why it’s one of the top rated golf courses in the world. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
“So I came here with a changed approach, I suppose, and an attitude towards the place, and I’ve really enjoyed my practice.”
It turns out the 37-year-old Englishman is also coming in as one of the hottest golfers on the planet — if not the hottest. Using the claw grip with his putter, Rose has moved up to 10th in strokesgained putting this season on the PGA Tour. He won just three weeks ago in Fort Worth, and then finished tied for sixth at the Memorial two weeks ago in Ohio.
As a student of instructor Sean Foley, the strength of Rose’s game has always been his ball-striking, and he ranks eighth this season in strokes-gained tee-to-green. Shinnecock is a golf course that tests all facets of the game, and Rose is coming in showing no weaknesses.
“I think for the most part, the consistency has been great all year. We always measure things in wins, so it was great to get over the finish line there,” said Rose, who took last week to come up to the east end of Long Island and get more acclimated with the course. “Coming in here off a little break to freshen up, that’s what you need to be at a U.S. Open. You need to be mentally fresh. I feel like I’ve done a good job with that the last week.”
It also helps that Rose has already won this tournament, taking his lone major at the U.S. Open in 2013 at Merion outside of Philadelphia. He has not been able to add a second major just yet despite continually being in contention, with f ive top-10s in majors since then that includes two runner-up f inishes at the Masters.
But unlike 2004, Rose now comes to Shinnecock ready to win again.
“I think what happened to me at Merion, I realized I’m going to win majors, and I’m also going to lose majors,” Rose said. “You can’t skip through your career without one or two s l i pping through the net. It’s a by-product of being on the leaderboard that those things happen. So I wasn’t scared of losing, and that helped me win my first major championship.”