Rónán MacNamara in Portrush
Justin Rose won a huge amount of plaudits for how he reacted to losing a playoff at the Masters to Rory McIlroy who completed the career grand slam at Augusta National, but it was nothing he hadn’t seen before.
It was a case of deja-vu for the Englishman who had lost in extra time to Sergio Garcia in 2017 as the Spaniard picked up an overdue maiden major title.
Rose has had several close saves in the majors since winning the 2013 US Open at Merion but he admits that his Masters loss wasn’t difficult to get over because of the circumstances surrounding the winner. McIlroy has also claimed that he would love to see him win at Royal Portrush this week and crown off a glorious career with a second major.
“When Rory was there over his three-footer to win and the tap-in, I was definitely, oh, man, I’ve kind of been here before watching the same story, obviously being in a playoff against Sergio, so there was definitely a little bit of deja -vu to that moment,” said 44-year-old Rose who endeared himself as one of the great sportsmen of our time while his wife Kate also won praise for her warm reaction towards McIlroy in the aftermath of his Masters win.
“I think, a little bit different this time around. I felt like I played great on Sunday. I felt like I did a lot of good things. I felt like I chased as hard as I could, left it all out there. So there was more pride in the performance, I think.
“But even in 2017 I hit a lot of good shots, could have gone my way. But there was a taste of I knew what it would feel like to win. I felt like I could almost imagine what it would be like to have won the Masters. I kind of feel like I have been that close.”
Rose had a front row seat to witness the sensational outpouring of emotion on the 18th green and although he wishes that it was him collapsing to his knees after sinking the winning putt, he knew the magnitude of McIlroy’s victory and has no regrets over how he played in the playoff.
“But when you see all the outpouring from Rory, you understand how big the moment is and you obviously wish that for yourself, obviously, but like I said at the time, I think it wasn’t lost on me what a huge achievement that was for the game of golf, obviously someone achieving the Career Grand Slam, so absolutely.
“I was able to still be happy for Rory in that moment, and it had been a long time coming for him. For how good he is, to kind of have a few chances slip by, in obviously maybe a decade even of chances slip by. It was always going to be a matter of time. I mean, it’s easy for us to say that, but when you’re the player, you want to kind of get that done and you want to get over the line, and obviously he had a huge opportunity to get that done.
“What can I say? He hit two amazing shots in the playoff. I’d imagine he felt like he’d have given it away until that point. He probably felt like he shouldn’t even be in a playoff from his point of view. So for him to steady himself and to put two great swings on it when it mattered most for him, obviously when you lose to that, you can kind of walk out with your head held high and give your competitor a lot of props for that type of situation.
“But obviously you’ve got to look inward and understand how is there anything I could have done better in the moment? But really I hit two great shots into 18 myself, and the outcome was what it was.”
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