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ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARD

March 16, 2017

Justin Rose

Orlando, Florida

Q. Good solid start. 1-under par. Talk us through about the par though first on 18 before we talk about the day. That was a pretty good par from over on that right side?
JUSTIN ROSE: What are you talking about? Birdie on 18, man.

Q. Sorry 9.
JUSTIN ROSE: Oh, okay. That was the highlight of my day, that birdie on 18. Yeah, for sure. The poor tee shot, kind of bailed out, blocked it way right. But sometimes on TOUR that's kind of where you get the best break. Obviously the rough's pretty thick here this week, but I was too far out, I was actually in the, beyond where the over seed is, so the only thing I had to judge was the flier lie I had. I hit 8-iron in there, managed to hit the green, 2-putt and get out with a 1-under par round. Pretty steady score. It was tricky out there. Obviously it was cold this morning, a bit of breeze as well didn't make it easy, so this is real golf, championship style golf so anything under par was a good start.

Q. I guess that speaks to Justin Rose style type of golf tournament the rest of the way and if so what needs to get better for you the next three days?
JUSTIN ROSE: I hope so. I'm excited about the challenge that we got this week. I feel like we have been playing in these conditions all year, you know, the West Coast is quite unique and the way it plays with the poa annua greens and then Mexico was obviously very unique and I haven't played much of the Florida swing, so I'm excited to get here and play with some sun on my back and on some good greens and some good conditions. So, yeah, I think the rest of the week the greens are going to firm up and I think it could be all you want.

Q. Great opening round. Fun to watch. Good luck the rest of the way.
JUSTIN ROSE: Thanks, guys.

Q. Can you talk for a moment toward the preparation of the Masters in April and in general how it's evolved for you over the years. How you found it worked best and what you like to do.
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I enjoy the preparation for the Majors, I really pursue them. For me it all started really I guess with the success at Merion, I really took that one seriously, it was one that I honed in on and I went up there and spent three days at Merion, really got to know the golf course, got to love the golf course. And just really interesting to see specifically that week when the tournament came around the way it was staged in terms of there was a tent somewhere far off in the distance and you're clamoring through bushes to get to the first tee, it didn't really give the true Merion feel. The fact that I was able to go there early and get the real essence of the golf course I think helped me that particular week and obviously that set the tone for me of how I like to prepare for these Majors going forward. It's time consuming. You got to pretty much take a full week out of your week off, you got to find almost a full week off somewhere to do it and you obviously as we all know the summer, the time is pretty compressed for all of us. So it's a commitment. But obviously if it pays off, that's why we play the game. Those are my dreams to win those tournaments and it's certainly worth it when it pays off.

Q. How about the Masters itself?
JUSTIN ROSE: Masters is obviously one that's real unique because we go every year. People say to me, well surely you would know how to play Augusta by now. I say, well, yeah, sure. So why do you go early? Why not? It's the Masters, it's Augusta, so you have the opportunity to go play, which I think is always fun to do. But you always tend to learn something, you always have a different local caddie that offers some tid bit of information. So I have a pretty good play book at Augusta, but that is one of the golf courses that you putt from memory in terms of the greens. Sometimes it's hard to pick up how much the ball breaks, you can see a one or two percent slope around the cup, normally on TOUR that's a left edge putt, but you might have to play it a cup out at Augusta. So you really have to remember which putts break hard.

Q. You would have been old enough to appreciate Faldo's victory against Norman all those years ago. Just wondering, do you see any similarities between that final round and what Danny did last year, the sort of under appreciated, given what happened around him, neither of them made a bogey the last can you appreciate it more as time goes on?
JUSTIN ROSE: We have seen guys close out really strongly in the last few years. Tiger obviously set that bar where he would never really give up a lead. The new youngsters are doing the same thing, Jordan has been good at closing them out, clearly that one got away from him. But that's golf and that's going to happen once or twice in your career. So, you never are out of it, they say it starts on the back nine on Sunday, it's got that reputation for a reason, often you have the opportunity to go low on that back nine as well as maybe make mistakes. So, yeah, Danny obviously put a clinical round together and got fortunate, too, and sometimes you need to get fortunate to win a golf tournament. The point is you got to be right there and you got to be there to sort of bump it up if that is to happen. Faldo was a little different. I think they were kind of a bit more eye to eye, so that was definitely very different, I thought. But Danny, the way he came in, I think the up-and-down off the back of 17, people don't appreciate how tough that chip was that Danny had and to hit such a quality shot when you know nerves are clearly going to be involved was impressive.

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