Thorny Rose
Briton snaps at snappers before revival
Jordan Spieth blamed a “brain fart”; Justin Rose blamed the clicking of cameras. Whatever it was, the major winners and playing partners finished yesterday with one-over rounds of 72 and a nagging sense of what might have been.
Spieth, the defending champion, looked well set having reached the 15th tee at three-under par without having dropped a shot, but a horrible sequence of trips to the fescue, sand, rough and the Barry Burn resulted in a double-bogey, bogey, par, bogey finish. In contrast, Rose ended on somewhat of a high with a superb birdie on the 18th, which at least put a smile on his face after a tetchy round.
Twenty years on from his remarkable debut as an amateur at the Open Championship, Rose still retains his cherubic features. Yet hiding behind that choirboy exterior lies a fierce temper, which came bubbling to the surface yesterday. Already annoyed by the antics of a posse of photographers on the second green, Rose was lining up his backstroke for what would have been a five-foot birdie putt on the sixth when the cameras again started clicking.
“On the back swing, really?” Rose asked after missing the putt and then, as he walked to the seventh tee, told the assembled photographers: “That was out of order.” His caddie, Mark Fulcher, added a sarcasm-heavy, “Thanks, lads”.
As Kiradech Aphibarnrat, the third member of the playing group, confirmed afterwards: “Justin got mad a couple of times.”
Rose duly shanked his tee shot from the seventh from which he recorded a bogey, although the 37-year-old said, rather unconvincingly, that those events were unconnected. “It’s not something that’s totally out of the realm what happens out here,” Rose said. “There’s a little distraction out there. You do face that on a lot of shots. It was just a bit more untimely than usual.
“It was just a series of shots that ran off right through my backstroke and transition. Obviously, when Jordan was up it carried on. It’s one of those things that does happen out here.
“I let the photographer know that I was not happy about what happened, and made him aware of what happened, and that was it.”
Worse was to follow for Rose at the 14th where he failed to escape a bunker, which resulted in a doublebogey seven. The birdie at 18, following a perfect approach, at least allowed him to regain a modicum of confidence. “It feels like it’s a start,” Rose said. “Obviously, not great. It was an opportunity to play well and score out there today.”
Spieth’s frustration, meanwhile, was entirely self-centred. In spite of a few missed birdie opportunities, everything had been running smoothly for the three-time major champion. The 24-year-old might have produced the putt of the tournament on the eighth, rolling it around the edge of the bunker to save par. He also engineered a birdie playing out of thick rough on the 11th.
After all his recent travails and a title drought that stretches back to Royal Birkdale 12 months ago, it was possible to believe the old Spieth was back. Then came the 15th and all that renewed hope came crashing down. The trouble began when his tee shot found the fescue and from there he ended up in a pot bunker, which he had to play out of sideways. A doublebogey was followed by a dropped shot at the 16th and again at the 18th where he found the Barry Burn, where many a ghost lies. Spieth, however, was haunted by his second shot on the 15th.
“I just had a brain fart, and I missed it into the location where the only pot bunker where I could actually get in trouble, and it plugged deep into it,” Spieth said. “It was a really, really poor decision on the second shot, and that cost me in the end.”
Neither Spieth nor Rose are completely out of contention, but then it is 10 years since an Open winner has gone over 70 in their opening round. “I think I’m certainly in a recoverable situation,” the American said. “It’s not a bad place to be – a solid round to stay in the top 25 will be the goal tomorrow to feel like I can do something on the weekend.”