This furiously fickle game can dish out more low blows than a fiery argument between the judges at the World Skirting Board Championship. It’s all about bouncing back and dealing with the sore ones, though.
At The Players Championship recently, Jason Day, the defending champion, closed with a turbulent final round of 80 but dusted himself down and returned to barge his way into a play-off for the title in his next event at the AT&T Byron Nelson Championship at the weekend.
Justin Rose, meanwhile, also signed off with an 80 in The Players and back in the golfing saddle on home soil this week in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. So what are the chances of the Englishman performing something similar to Day with a robust display of, as they say, bouncebackability?
“High … I think,” said Rose. “I hope. It always takes one putt, one swing, one round, just to get a little bit of momentum going and then you’re back, you’re up and running again. I think that’s one thing I’ve learned in my career. You’re never far away from playing well. It can feel the opposite at times, of course. When you aren’t playing well, good golf feels so far away. But it’s always just around the corner.”
Rose’s sudden-death play-off loss to Sergio Garcia in April’s Masters certainly cut deep but the former US Open champion is not one to allow the disappointment of defeat to fester. At just 36, there’s plenty to play for in this pursuit of great longevity.
“The only way I can really describe it is that I don't wake up in the morning with a hole in my heart,” he said. “I don't walk around with it on my shoulders. I have so much ahead of me this season, and so much ahead of me over the next ten years or so, that it's not really worth looking back at it with any type of emotion until I've kind of hung my golf clubs up. If I was to be a one time Masters Champion, that would be fantastic. If I was to be a two or three time Masters Champion, even better. But one would be great, and I still have plenty of opportunity for that.”
Rose, who has never won the BMW PGA Championship but has flirted with glory on a couple of occasions, has a sense of duty when it comes to the European Tour’s flagship.
This is an event he grew up watching while beetling about as a wide-eyed youngster trying to grab the autographs of the stars of the day. Now it’s Rose who is scribbling down his name for a new generation. “I think there's a commitment here for sure,” he said. “It does deserve to be respected. From the age of 12, I just wanted to be a pro golfer. I always believed I'd be here signing the autographs.”
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