Resurgent Rose knows what Tiger is going through July 4th, 2010
As Tiger Woods continued his Philly Phade to the back of the pack in his own signature golf tournament Saturday, the fortunes of Englishman Justin Rose have been on the rise over the last month, a continuing trend this week in the AT&T National at Aronimink.
The low round of the tournament, a 6-under 64 on Friday, left him the 36-hole leader. And a third-round 67 kept him on top of the board at 10-under 200, leading by four shots and in prime position to secure his second PGA Tour victory in his last three starts on Sunday.
Justin Rose weathered some tough times of his own after his breakthrough in the 1998 British Open. (AP) Rose, now 29, is clearly fulfilling the promise of his teenage years. Woods, on the other hand, is still trying to find his way back to the level of sustained excellence that earned him 71 PGA Tour titles and 14 major championships since he turned pro in 1996. He began badly on Saturday with bogeys on his first two holes, rallied to an even par 70, and was at three-over 213, tied for 47th and hopelessly out of contention in an event he won last year when it was played at Congressional in the Washington D.C.
Still, Woods insisted, he remains encouraged by his play this week, despite mediocre results. “Im getting better,” he said. “I feel more comfortable with what Im working on. Its so much more comfortable than at the beginning of the year.”
Rose can sort of relate to Woods woes on the golf course in the aftermath of an ugly scandal that still dogs the No. 1 player in the world virtually every day. The Englishman, ranked No. 35 this week, has been down but not out several times over the course of his own turbulent career, and he thinks he has some idea of what Woods is going through
“To bring your best on the golf course when youre probably being depleted in so many other areas mentally, its difficult,” Rose said, adding that hes certain Woods will not be down for long. “When he starts driving it well, you know his game is never far away,” he said. “The putting … thatll come with confidence. If he starts giving himself some good looks that will happen.”
Rose knows all about adversity, though obviously on a much smaller scale. He first burst into the golf publics consciousness with his final shot at the 1998 British Open at Royal Birkdale, holing out from 50 yards away for an improbable birdie and a tie for fourth place at the age of 17. The sonic boom roar when that shot went in the hole also seemed to signal his arrival as golfs next great prodigy. After all, this was a lad who broke 70 for the first time at age 11, carried a four handicap at age 14 and won the English boys championship at 15. At the age of 17 years and 10 days, he also became the first player ever to represent the United Kingdom and Ireland in the prestigious Walker Cup competition in 1997.
When Rose turned professional the week after his Birkdale heroics, greatness was expected sooner than later. Instead, it was sheer agony in his first full year on the European Tour in 1999, when he missed the cut in 21 straight events before finally breaking through in the Compaq European Open.
In the years since, hes had a modicum of success, with six worldwide victories. Last month, he finally broke through with his first PGA Tour win, prevailing in Jack Nicklauss Memorial event by three shots over the current hotshot kid, 21-year-old Rickie Fowler. And last week, Rose had the 54-hole lead at the Travelers event in Connecticut before a 39 on the back nine on the way to a deflating 75 left him tied for ninth place.
Still, if nothing else, Rose has always shown an admirable ability to bounce back from plenty of gut-wrenching setbacks, starting with that horrid streak of missed cuts that eventually was followed by his first win on the European Tour in 2002. This week, after his final round collapse at Hartford, Rose once again seems to have recovered nicely, and it did not take him very long to get over that bump in the road from Connecticut to Pennsylvania. It began about 90 minutes after he had walked off the 18th green on Sunday at the Travelers. He had been staying in a home not far from the ninth hole on the tournament course, and when he returned to the house he decided to walk out to that ninth green, putter in hand.
“I hit a couple because my putting was so bad,” he said. “I hit a couple putts, worked on it, spoke to some people about what went wrong with my putting and went to the same spot I missed a putt from on the ninth green and made it. I thought, OK, lets go to next week. Thats the way it is.”
Rose has been playing long enough to know not to dwell on the past and also not to beat himself up no matter what, a trait many of his playing peers would be wise to emulate.
“You can never prevent it from happening again,” he said. “Thats the first thing to accept. You cant be scared of it happening again. Youve just got to put yourself in that position, dig in, do your best. I didnt do a lot wrong at the Travelers to shoot 5 over. Its just golf.
“If you accept that, its a lot easier to go out there and play. Tiger, Phil, these guys get into contention a lot, and therefore it becomes more normal, and those feelings that they face become easier to deal with. It will be easier to deal with this weekend than it was last weekend, and the more and more I put myself into contention, the easier it will be going forward.”
And so, when he arrived here in the Philadelphia suburbs early in the week, Rose said he was determined to use Hartford as a learning experience.
“Closing out a golf tournament is difficult,” he said. “You do learn things. And when you learn something, youve got to practice it for it to become natural. So if youre not in contention that much, its very difficult to put into play the lessons that you learned. So this week, Im very happy to have the opportunity to go out there, test myself, put into play what I learned last week.
“Last Sunday, I really thought I went out there thinking very well. My game plan didnt change, my strategy didnt change and my commitment didnt change. I just felt a little more tight. Thats the human body. There are ways and means of getting over that and still performing to your best. I felt those feelings at the Memorial. Down the stretch there the heart was going. But sometimes, it just happens.”
Rose would like to believe that it will happen for him again on Sunday, when he will enter the final round with a four-shot lead playing in the final group for the second straight week.
Is there a Tiger-esque Philly Phade in this chaps future? Stay tuned.