Rose looks to use tough situations to his advantage
Web posted
Saturday, April 10, 2004
When he turned professional at age 17, Justin Rose (Stats | Bio) failed to make the cut in his first 21 consecutive starts on the European Tour.
When he was 22, his father and mentor, Ken, died after a battle with cancer.
Somehow, Rose found the resolve to succeed.
The 23-year-old Englishman is looking to draw upon his past as he enters the final 36 holes of the Masters Tournament with a two-shot lead.
"In a lot of ways, you have experiences that make you realize that it's not the end of the world and other experiences that make you tougher and know how to deal with it," he said. "I feel like I can draw on a couple of things that have happened to me going into this weekend."
After an opening 5-under-par 67, Rose carded a steady 71 on Friday. He sits atop a star-studded leaderboard, ahead of Alex Cejka (Stats | Bio) and two-time Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal (Stats | Bio) by two, Phil Mickelson (Stats | Bio) by three, Ernie Els (Stats | Bio) and Davis Love III (Stats | Bio) by four and three-time Masters winner Tiger Woods (Stats | Bio) by six.
"I think anybody making the cut is technically within range," Rose said. "Many tournaments have been won from 10 back or whatever it might be.
The 18-hole leader, Rose appeared confident in the second round. At even-par through 11 holes, he knocked his tee shot stiff on the par-3 12th and parred out.
"I wanted to sort of not put myself under pressure at all today in terms of having to scramble for pars and get up and down," Rose said.
"I was pretty happy with that today in terms of I gave myself a lot of birdie chances and didn't have to put myself under too much pressure."
Rose entered the tournament ranked 130th in putting average on the PGA Tour this year. For the second straight day, he used 32 putts but had no three-putts in his round.
"Actually, some of the putts I hit really well; they didn't go in," he said. "That's often all you can do.
"It would have been nice to have taken advantage of a couple of good shots into the greens. But at the same time, you know, in the back of your mind, you always know that par is a good score."
After 36 holes, Rose leads the field in greens in regulation. He missed just three greens Friday and has missed four overall.
"I think he's a steady player," Olazabal said.
"He hits high shots, which favors this golf course. And it's going to be down to him - if he's having a good week on the greens, he's going to be up there."
Rose is trying to pull off two feats that haven't occurred recently - no European has won a major since 1999 (Paul Lewrie (Stats | Bio) , British Open) and no player has gone wire to wire in the Masters since Raymond Floyd in 1976.
"As you get close to the finish line, you know it's up for grabs, and I'm sure it will get tougher and tougher," Rose said. "You can still grow in confidence, dealing with what I did today, going into tomorrow, again, gives me confidence.
"Hopefully the week will build that way for me rather than go the other way."
Reach Chris Gay at (706) 823-3645 or chris.gay@augustachronicle.com.
