Justin Rose gets the perfect grounding for Major

10 June 2013

It must be a surprise to some across the pond when Justin Rose lines up for the opposition in the Ryder Cup. A fixture on the PGA Tour, a Florida resident with an accent pitched somewhere between Basingstoke and Baltimore, Rose fits easily the profile of the modern American golfer.

Some at Merion this week will assume he is just that when he strides out at the US Open alongside Matt Kuchar and Brand Snedeker in the opening two rounds.

It is only when he is immersed in the once familiar rhythms along the Hampshire/Surrey borders that he is reminded just how important the old country is to his golfing well-being and how valuable his recent reconnection might be as he resumes the pursuit of a maiden victory at the second Major of the season.

Rose arrived at the BMW PGA last month on the back of a missed cut at the Players Championship, his first failure of the year. At Wentworth he needed a birdie at the last on Friday to make the weekend. Thereafter his game came back to him, sufficiently so to claim on his return to America a fifth top-10 finish of the season at the Memorial Tournament.

“It is great to connect with the things I did as a kid. I have the same group of friends who I played golf with and one particular friend I went to school with. I’m not great on the phone or text but once a year I turn up and it’s like I have never been away. It feels right when I drive around. Most places on tour, you’re dealing with sat nav and stuff like that but I know how to get around there,” said Rose.

“It’s nice just to go down to my local club, North Hants, and have a pint in the bar and see some of the old faces and people that have been really, really good to me through the years.

“It was a really good sort of grounding week for me, as well, from that perspective. The secretary always used to give me a rollicking for having my hat on in the clubhouse and stuff like that. So I can’t get away with anything that’s not acceptable just because I’m known off the golf course.”

Rose, as you would expect for a player ranked No5 in the world, is among the favourites to win here in America this week. At 32 he is the mean age for first-time Major winners. He thought it might come at the Masters in April until he encountered the 12th in spiteful mood on Saturday and Sunday, dropping six shots in his two visits to the heart of Amen Corner.

At a sub 7,000 yards, Merion, designed by a Scotsmen in 1912, resembles more the courses he grew up playing around Fleet and the A3 corridor than the modern monsters designed to counter today’s long hitters. That said, Rose is ready to conquer on any track. “I’m one week away from winning a Major. It could be any week. If things go my way I believe I’m capable of winning any major I tee off in now.

“Confidence is the x-factor. It is not something you can rush, it comes over time and helps piece the rest of your game together. I have enough deep‑rooted confidence to know that if not this week, then next week it will turn around. Merion will be a challenge but one I’m looking forward to taking on.”

Rose is in such good spirits he has even taken positives out of his poor performance the Players Championship.

“I’m happy it happened,” he said. “I was going along in a nice vein of form. Sometimes when you are in a spell like that it doesn’t force you to look at your game objectively.

“The Players gave me an opportunity to draw breath and reset myself for the summer. Things like focus and attitude that can be affected by other things in your life.”

Justin Rose is a proud ambassador for Ashworth Golf. For more information on Ashworth golf apparel and footwear visit ashworthgolf.com

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