Justin Rose is the winner of a major championship, an Olympic Gold medal along with 24 tournament victories on five different continents.
He’s a former World No.1 and married with two lovely children, yet while the Rose’s have sold their stunning Jamaican luxury abode and returned to England to live, things on the golf course are not all as rosey as things seem.
Rose went into the mandatory break missing the cut in both the Honda Classic and Arnold Palmer and when play resumed he did finish third in Fort Worth, but he also uncharacteristically missed four of five cuts.
There was a bright light nine days after turning 40 on July 30th when he finished T9th in the PGA Championship but without a major equipment sponsor, and after splitting after just one year with Honma, Rose admits things haven’t worked out.
That includes missing the cut in the U.S. Open ahead of teeing-up in Europe for a first occasion this year.
As well, this time last year Rose was ranked as No. 4 in the world but tees-off at Wentworth as World No.23, his lowest ranking since being ranked No.22 following the 2012 Honda Classic.
“I turned 40 this year and maybe I was fully grown up and ready to do more by myself, and not have so much hand holding,” he said
“I still have Sean Foley (coach) around me, who I can consult with if I have a question. That’s the way I treat it. If I have a question, go to someone and get the relevant answer, but to take a little bit more ownership myself.
“It just hasn’t worked out yet, but like you say, these things don’t always happen immediately. The last couple days have actually clicked into a couple days of what I call growth.
“There’s some light-bulb moments and it’s a blend of some of the new things I’ve learned along the way and some of the old blueprints under Sean. I feel like I’m piecing all that together and also body-wise, being able to drill it and groove it in.
“You always see results on the range before you see it on the golf course, but like I said earlier, I feel positive and motivated at the moment. I’m enjoying my golf and my practice, so you can only hope that it does lead to good stuff eventually.”
Rose was asked to clarify if his ‘light bulb’ moments were more mental or technical hiccups in his game.
“I think it’s always chicken-and-egg,” he admitted.
“The mental becomes confidence, and does the confidence come before the technique, or does the technique come before the confidence? I think probably you have to, for me, it’s like a feel, when I make the right move and then something happens at impact where you feel like basically nothing happens at impact. It’s just very smooth. It’s very calm.
“The things that you’ve worked on prior to that moment of impact, you can kind of — if they are strong feels and they connect with you mentally, I think that’s what you’re looking for. You look for that impact, you go, wow, that’s different, that feels like golf.
“Even at our level I think there’s only one or two golf shots you hit a day where you go, that’s the one. Everything else is a slight glance or manipulation of the club where it’s not quite on the intended line but it’s those two or three shots that you hit and you feel, and if you relate back to a feeling that you know is repeatable, that’s when you get excited.
“So yeah, for me it was a technical feel on the range that then elicited the feeling that I’m after internally that hopefully then produces confidence, so there you go, a big circle.”
And there’s the Roses’ return to England.
“It’s the result of talking to kids a lot about it and schooling and all this stuff, and just sort of looking at all factors involved,” he said.
“Timelines have been brought up with Covid. My son is over here in boarding school, so to get to see him more regularly is important to us. Mrs. Rose is the boss of all of this stuff, so if she says go, it gets done.
“You look at all these things, my mom still in great health, not getting younger, my brother is here, my cousins all living in one country, a dream and goal, yeah, I think it’s on the cards for sure.”
Leave a comment