A BLOOMIN’ TOUGH DAY
Rose wilts early on but digs in to claw it back
IF Justin Rose looked like he was playing an alternative Masters in the first round, reality bit as he came tumbling back to the chasing pack yesterday.
From Thursday outlier to Friday flatliner, the rocket fuel that propelled the Englishman to a four-shot overnight lead ran dry as he coughed and spluttered his way around Augusta National with his overnight advantage gone by the 11th hole.
But Rose dug his heels in, turned it around on the closing stretch and heads into the weekend right in the mix.
A second-round 72 was small beer after a 65 but critically neither was it the blowout it looked like it could turn into at one stage.
The 40-year-old has played enough Majors to know the tarmac is rarely smooth for four rounds and will be crossing his fingers that yesterday – when scoring conditions were actually easier – was his off day.
The alternative the Olympic champion will be less keen to entertain is that a rambling round two represented a more accurate take on the state of his game.
The next two days will reveal all. There was a pointer towards yesterday’s struggle ahead from his very first shot as he pushed a 3 wood off the first tee into the trees and, with no option but to chip back out on to the fairway, ended up bogeying.
He bounced straight back with a birdie at the par-five second after a neat chip but bogeys at the two short holes followed. An overcooked tee shot at the fourth left him in no-man’s land and after choosing a putter as his rescue club he failed to reach the green.
Then a three-putt at the sixth from long range after an unfortunate kick from his tee shot added to his woes.
The flabby second shot into a greenside bunker at the seventh from the fairway was borderline embarrassing and another bogey followed.
As a start it wasn’t that much different from Thursday but it isn’t every day you play the next 11 holes in nine under.
As the enemy started to mass at the barricades, he steadied the ship around the turn with an excellent second shot at the difficult 11th, setting him up for a fourth successive par.
But by the time he took aim on the 12th tee he had three others for company at the top of the leaderboard and by the next hole Marc Leishman had usurped him.
Rose is no quitter, though, and this is not his first rodeo. This is Masters No.15 for him and he knew he still had strong scoring opportunities to come.
His tap-in birdie at 13 gave him a share of the lead back and a fine 15-footer at the next restored it outright. When he rolled in another one at the short 16th he had hauled himself back level for the round.
If Rose felt like a god in round one, he was back slumming it with the mortals yesterday. But he fought and crucially, with a first Green Jacket his target, he stayed in the game.