Justin Rose has remained an enigma at the Open Championship.Having shot into the limelight after finishing fourth in his Open debut as an amateur in 1998 at Royal Birkdale, the Englishman has struggled ever since in a tournament that seems to be tailor-made for someone like him, brought up on links golf courses.
The 34-year-old has played 12 Opens since then, and his best finish has been a 12th place in Carnoustie in 2007.
But the world No8, who goes into this week’s 144th Open Championship as the highest ranked British player following the injury-related withdrawal of world No1 Rory McIlroy, is confident he will be able to turn his childhood dreams of winning the tournament into reality very soon.
“It would mean the world. It would be a realisation of a lot of childhood dreams and hard work, and growing up, this is the one tournament that I dreamt of winning,” said Rose.
“Obviously, major championships, you’ll take any of them. You don’t get picky. They’re hard to win. But if you were to get picky, this would be the one for me.
“I believe I can win any week that I play. My game is in good shape. It’s just a matter of accessing it, really. You know, to access your best is preparation, is doing all the right things, and I’m doing all of that. So now, it’s just a matter of momentum and a bit of confidence to go my way, and that happens during the tournament.
“I feel like I’ve given myself a great chance with how I feel. I’ve got a bit of hard work to do I would say on the chipping and putting the next couple of days, but again, that’s the spark of confidence I’m looking for.
“As for being the highest-ranked Briton, I think I’ve been in this situation a number of times, so it’s not new on me. I probably have to do a better job of taking on that feeling of getting the crowd behind me or using their energy in a better way. That could be the difference.”
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When asked if he has been able to put a finger on what is going wrong for him at The Open, Rose added: “No, I haven’t. I can play links golf. I know that for sure. I won the Scottish Open around a very linksey golf course in those windy conditions last year.
“I’ve been close in a couple of Opens. My record may not suggest that but there’s been a couple where I felt like I had a great chance to win if a few things had gone my way or if I just got a bit of momentum. My Open record isn’t great, but I am looking at making it right over the next five or six years.”
Rose did not have the best run-up to the Open this year. At the Scottish Open last week, he was leading the tournament at eight-under par at the halfway stage, but shot rounds of 72 and 76 over the weekend to finish tied 74th at even-par. He also smashed a tee shot into the crowd on Saturday and it hit and seriously injured an elderly fan.
Beautiful view looking towards the 13th green at #StAndrews. #TheOpen pic.twitter.com/WuQImQZZ1a
— The Open (@TheOpen) July 14, 2015
But Rose, who won the prestigious St Andrew Links trophy on the Old Course during his amateur days, said he still takes a lot of positives out of last week.
“I actually learned a lot at the Scottish Open last week on the weekend. My scores were terrible, but I actually didn’t play that badly, so there was nothing for me to worry about,” he added.
“I think I identified a couple of things that I’ve been doing wrong with my putting, which is good, because I can rectify that very quickly.
“I know what the cause and effect is and it’s easily fixed. It was just a really good learning couple of days, getting a lot of good data in and also just getting a feel for playing in a heavy wind, which I think will be the case here on Thursday and Friday.”
