| INSIDE THE ROPES
The Rise
Rise
and of
Justin Rose Our European correspondent Lewine Mair talks to the Ryder Cup hero and world rankings climber – who is living proof that nice guys do indeed win.
A
t 32, Justin Rose is as well-rounded as they come – an eager young man doing a job he enjoys whilst remembering that there is a world outside. On the Tuesday of the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, the week when he had that staggering fourth-round 62 to finish second place behind Rory McIlroy, he had been tending his jet-lagged son, Leo, for much of the night. And thinking nothing of it. Again, though it might have been a little different had this interview taken place after that 62 rather than ahead of it, he was less interested in talking about his own feats than the Ryder Cup. The match in general as opposed to merely the 2012 instalment. He had not had time to savour the putts he holed against Phil Mickelson in Medinah – “I’ll look at the film over Christmas” – but he had been studying results from Chicago and Celtic Manor in tandem. Europe won on both occasions but he wondered if people appreciated how they had captured only two out of seven of the foursomes and fourball sessions on offer over the two matches. (They halved two of the others and lost three.) “I think,” he said in the manner of one who could not quite believe it, “the situation has suddenly flip-flopped. We used to be the stronger in the foursomes and foursomes but, this year in particular, the Americans were the ones coming up with the great pairings. It’s definitely something we need to look at for 2014.”
AFP
Out of darkness: Justin Rose emerged from a dispiriting start to his professional career to become one of the finest talents that England has produced in a generation 52
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Those 21 missed cuts are long in the past but there is no question that they did as much as anything else to define the player. From this distance, Rose says that they were good for him as a person if not obviously so good for his golf. On the personal front, he has never developed any kind of an ego, for which he is grateful. He remains endlessly humble and has no great craving for attention: “Golf, rather than fame, has always been my driving force.” It is a state of affairs to have had people wondering how on earth he and Ian Poulter could ever have become such great mates. Yet, to no small extent, it was this unlikely alliance which helped Rose to recover his shattered confidence. The two shared a room on the Challenge Tour – Europe's second-tier circuit – and Rose would sit by, mesmerised, as Poulter would turn on some outrageously loud music in the mornings “ and bully himself into playing well.” Gradually, Rose came out of his shell. He started to win and, though his game would take another violent dip on the death of the father, everything has now come together. Apart from being totally committed to the “Blessings in a Backpack” charity in which his every birdie
No top player has known more highs and lows in the intervening years than Rose has, with particular reference to that extraordinary juxtaposition of events in 1998. That was the year when, as a 17-year-old amateur, he finished in a heady share of fourth place in The Open at Birkdale before promptly missing 21 cuts in a row at the start of his professional career.
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Rose is one of the purest ball strikers on tour (top) and, after working with David Leadbetter in his early years, is now under the guidance of Sean Foley, who also coaches Tiger Woods; reacting to his magical putt for birdie at the 17th hole during his Ryder Cup singles match with Phil Mickelson (opposite) 54
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When the conversation finally switched to Rose’s own feats – he hauled himself into fourth place on the world order in Dubai – he threw in a fascinating little aside. Shortly before he had left for the United Arab Emirates, someone had shown him a clip of old film in which his late father, Ken, was talking to a local TV station about his offspring’s golfing future. “I was 14 at the time and I’d just made it through to final qualifying at The Open,” Justin began. “What dad was saying was that he felt I had what it takes to be a top-20 player on the European Tour. It was fascinating to see it – and satisfying to think that I’ve exceeded those expectations.” No top player has known more highs and lows in the intervening years than he has, with particular reference to that extraordinary juxtaposition of events in 1998. That was the
makes money for hungry children, he has his own lovely family and the optimum golfing team. The team includes a coach in Sean Foley and a caddie in Mark Fulcher, both of whom bring out the best in him. Foley, he says, has been just as right for him as he has for Tiger. “What people don’t seem to realise about Tiger,” he volunteered, “is the huge mental knocking he took at the time of his troubles.” He did not proffer an opinion on whether the former world number one would return to his previous heights but he did venture, quietly, that he felt would be a better father to his two children because of the way things had turned out. Rose and Fulcher, who used to caddie for former LPGA player Alison Nicholas, fall into easy chat in every round, agreeing on some things, not on others. Fulcher, for example, believes they have left it too late to ban the long putter; Rose, on the other hand, says that he, like other short-putter men, would like to see it banished. “It’s definitely easier for a flat six-footer,” maintains the player, though he added that it would be madness if the R&A and USGA were to be influenced by the fact that the 14-year-old Guan Tianlang was using a long putter as he won the Asia Pacific Amateur. “Anyone can hole anything at 14,” said Rose, who suspected that his propensity for holing 30-footers and chips at that age had hardly helped to make his older rivals look at him in a more kindly light. More and more, Rose has found contentment in his peripatetic way of life – and it is probably because of his more laid-back attitude that he has been able to fathom one more piece of the golfing jigsaw. Namely, the right way of getting over the finishing line. Though he did not come out on top in Dubai as he had done in Turkey and in the WGC-Cadillac Championship, he again had the satisfaction of knowing that
year when, as a 17-year-old amateur, he finished in a heady share of fourth place in The Open at Birkdale before promptly missing 21 cuts in a row at the start of his professional career. “What happened at The Open skewed everything," he recalls. “Months earlier, dad and I had agreed on a three-year plan. He had always said that the best place to learn to be a professional was on the professional tour and I was always going to make the switch after Birkdale. “But that one week left everyone with ridiculously high expectations. We no longer had any hope of enacting that plan even vaguely under the radar.” There was a crescendo of negative publicity, much of it saying that he had turned professional too soon. Looking back, Rose says that he and his father felt like “a couple of outcasts.” Things would be a little different today but, at that stage, the nearest player in age to the by then 18-year-old Justin was the 23-year-old Steve Webster. “I didn’t fit in then any more than I had on the amateur scene,” says Rose. With regard to that amateur reference, he had been hugely successful at an early age whilst all the time ruffling feathers among his older rivals. “There was a bit of jealousy in there,” he admits, before adding a revealing, “the banter of 18-yearolds was maybe a bit much for a 12-year-old.” HKGOLFER.COM
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“Winning is not about keeping your fingers crossed that you are still ahead at the end. It’s about so enjoying competing under the pressure that, when you get to the 72nd hole, you’re almost wishing you could play a 73rd. You want to carry on holing those pressure putts and making your performance run into the next week.”
he had done everything right. He had kept fighting every step of the way. “Winning,” he explains, “is not about keeping your fingers crossed that you are still ahead at the end. It’s about so enjoying competing under the pressure that, when you get to the 72nd hole, you’re almost wishing you could play a 73rd. You want to carry on holing those pressure putts and making your performance run into the next week.” That is precisely how it was during the last few holes of his 62, though if there was ever the right moment for a round – and a season – to end, this was it. Almost certainly, he will break into a smile every time he recalls the putt he came within a whisker of holing on the home green. The 90-footer slowly wended its way over one slope then another, giving Rose goose-pimples as it paused on a ridge before finally running down to the hole’s side amid a rising roar from the greenside stands. Everyone had talked of how boring the tournament would be with McIlroy having tied up the Race to Dubai title before the last event but, as it turned out, people were over-excited rather than the reverse. With particular reference to those manning the score-board to the side of the 18th green ... even before Rose tapped in for the birdie, they had his score up in lights.
AFP
The South African-born Englishman has four European Tour and four PGA Tour victories to his credit. His biggest win to date arrived at the WGC-Cadillac Championship in March 56
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