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WGC BRIDGESTONE INVITATIONALAugust 1, 2014Justin RoseAKRON, OHIO CHRIS REIMER: We'll welcome Justin Rose here to the interview room at the Bridgestone Invitational, currently second round leader. 8 under par, but you kind of mentioned on the air a tale of two rounds, one you felt like you got everything out of and today maybe felt like you left a few out there. You still have to like where you stand. JUSTIN ROSE: Absolutely. Things always have a tendency of evening themselves out. Really happy with the way I turned the long game around. 16 greens out there is pretty solid, but for the most part hit it close to the hole as well. Early in the round, the putts kept sliding by. Wasn't seeing the line all that well. I think 18 was the first putt I made. From there, felt pretty comfortable with the putts. Had a couple of good looks coming in. Hit the hole left in the middle of 18, just a quarter inch short. All in all, it's a good start to the tournament. CHRIS REIMER: A good stretch of golf now. Most guys going to play five, six, eight weeks. How important is it to get momentum this stretch of the season? JUSTIN ROSE: Absolutely. My momentum started about a month ago. Seemed to be carrying it on nicely. Obviously, I'm feeling good about peaking at this time of year. Like you said, every week is big. You could argue a major championship in the middle of it all is the one you'd really love to peak for next week. But at the same time, there's not a bad golf tournament now for about two months.  Looking forward to the whole stretch. Q. Justin, in comparison when you won at Congressional and also at Scotland, how would you say your play is this week compared to the opening rounds of those two events? JUSTIN ROSE: I worked my way into the week of Congressional. I played pretty poorly the first day, but then 65 on Friday at Congressional was one of my best rounds of the year. The weekend was clearly tough. Even though I didn't think I was playing great golf, I was obviously playing better than the field because the course got that tough. But then in Scotland, I felt like I clicked into a really nice gear there, especially Saturday, Sunday, just felt really in control of my game. And at The Open, again, it was tough to really gauge it. I felt like we were on the wrong side of the draw. So it was tough to know how your game stacked up against the field and couldn't quite get it going on the weekend. But to get it going quick out of the gates again is nice. I've done it two different ways. On this golf course, you need‑‑ it tests every part of your game. You are going to miss shots. You're going to have to scramble at times, but then there's times you have to rely on your long games. I've kind of done both the first two rounds. So it gives me confidence that something will pull through on the weekend. Q. The Scottish at the start of it, you said you had one eye on The Open, but then as the week went on, you started to enjoy the tournament for what it was. Is there a similar feeling with this week in relation to next week? JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, very much so. Even after my round yesterday, I shot 65, and I went and hit some balls, which I wouldn't normally do. I'd normally be trying to conserve energy and trying to prepare for the weekend. My game wasn't quite where I wanted it. Yeah, part of that was this week, and part of that is to feel as good as I can going into next week too. Today I'm going to hit some putts. I don't feel 100 percent with the way I was today with the putting. Sometimes your alignment or posture gets a little bit off and you can't see the line as well. I felt like that happened to me a little bit today. I was fighting to see the line of the putt. There's always something to work on, but even more motivation to work on it when next week is a major championship. Q. Looked like you missed six fairways and still hit 16 greens, as you said, getting pretty close. Were you not missing very far, or was it a situation where you simply hit it in spots where you had some good leads? JUSTIN ROSE: Hit a couple‑‑ you know, like No.8, hit a decent drive that just went into the rough there. Hit a good‑‑ controlled it well out of the rough. I'm trying to think. That seems like a lot of missed fairways to me. 16, for example, missed the fairway there, but you can kind of get away with it there because it's all about the third shot into that green anyway. I can't quite remember, but 16 was a lot‑‑ I didn't feel that bad. Q. So you are comfortable with driving the golf ball? JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah. I drive it well. For example, down near the 9th hole, I hit a good tee shot down the left side, and it just sort of cambers off into the first cut. For the most part, the driver is coming out well. Q.  One bogey in the first two rounds. Mistake‑free golf. Is that what it's going to take to win this tournament? JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah. The course offers up a lot of birdies too right now with it being soft. So you can look at it both ways. Do you stay aggressive to make birdies, or do you try and keep it really solid? I'm kind of doing right in the middle. I feel like I've certainly made some mistakes and my short game's got me out of trouble at times, but I think you have to stay aggressive right now and look at the birdies rather than try to play mistake‑free golf. That's my mentality, I think, at the moment. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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