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CHRYSLER CLASSIC OF GREENSBORO

October 14, 2004

Justin Rose

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA

CHRIS REIMER: Welcome Justin Rose. Solid first round today. It is your first time playing here. What was your initial thoughts of the course?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, it was my first full round. I got in -- we held a Ken Rose Foundation charity in England on Monday. So it went that I got here a little bit later than I would normally arrive.

So delighted to have shot in the 67. Yeah. I didn't actually get a chance to play a full round just the pro-am being nine holes. So yeah, first full round I was pretty pleased with that.

CHRIS REIMER: What did you think of the course?

JUSTIN ROSE: I really like the course. I think obviously it's playing very soft at the moment. That's why the scoring is very low. But I think that I really like it. I think the greens firm up a little towards the end of the week it's going to play tougher and tougher. And you got to really control your iron shots around here.

CHRIS REIMER: Let's talk about the hole-in-one on 17.

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, the highlight of the day. I made a hole-in-one when I was 10 and another one when I was 12 and haven't had one since. So I was just delighted that it came on a hole that tough and that long and I hit the shot -- sometimes you make hole-in-one's and you don't actually hit that good a shot. But the guys I played with says that's the best hole-in-one they have ever seen. So it was a pretty nice touch to actually make it in style.

CHRIS REIMER: What was the club and distance?

JUSTIN ROSE: I had 234 yards and we were debating actually between 2- or 3-iron. So it was kind of nice to go the right club and I hit a 3-iron. It was a hard 3-iron. It was perfect.

Q. Had you -- did you play 17 yesterday in the nine holes?

JUSTIN ROSE: No.

Q. So that was your first shot everyone that hole?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah. Yeah. Kind of downhill from there, I guess.

Q. The other holes-in-one you had, I guess they weren't your first time ever seeing those particular holes?

JUSTIN ROSE: No, I, no one was around in my local club and the other one was in a junior competition. So, yeah.

Q. Who gets the car?

JUSTIN ROSE: Sorry?

Q. Who gets the car?

JUSTIN ROSE: Do I get a car? Is that official? Is it really. Mark told me it wasn't. That's cool. Well, we're building a house right now I got a double garage I need to fill up, so that's kind of a nice start, I guess.

Q. So you had played which nine?

JUSTIN ROSE: The front.

Q. What brought you here this week?

JUSTIN ROSE: Just trying to push my way into the top 30, really. I think I'm around, what? Somewhere in the 50s right now. I lost track a little.

Q. 53rd, I think.

JUSTIN ROSE: So I got a long way -- well not a long way to go because it can be one week and you're right there. But I still a lot of dollars to be earned in order to get into the top 30. But I'm going to play obviously this week and Disney and Tampa. So there's obviously the top 40 too, which gets you in the Masters, so.

Q. You're not already exempt?

JUSTIN ROSE: No, I think I am. No.

Q. When you playing the back first time ever seeing it, how were you kind of guiding it around?

JUSTIN ROSE: Well, I walked it yesterday. I stepped on the tee and knew what to expect. And I knew the lines pretty much to hit it on. I think there are no real surprises, the course is pretty much there in front of you. There's no blind shots, no kind of weird holes the only tricky hole I thought was 13, really. The par-5 there.

CHRIS REIMER: You managed to birdie it though.

JUSTIN ROSE: I bailed it out on my tee shot, I laid up and hit it close with a wedge. But apart from that it was pretty straightforward I felt.

Q. How well do you know Carl? You guys played the TOUR, your TOUR together?

JUSTIN ROSE: We obviously got to know each other in Europe and I know Carl relatively well. He's a nice guy. I think he's actually a really strong player. His ball striking has always impressed me when I played with him. He just had a kid and he said that he had a five week layoff. And he came out and he's gone 10th, 5th, the last two weeks, so it seems to have done him good.

Q. Does it help when you're playing with a guy that you know pretty well?

JUSTIN ROSE: It doesn't really make a lot of difference. I think it's nice when the guy is playing well. And you can kind of feed off each other. We did that. Our rounds followed fairly similar paths. I mean obviously I made a little bit of a late charge, but I knew that -- yeah, what, it was good. We both shot 67. It's going to be nice. We go out there tomorrow, we're in the tournament from the word go. So it will be a nice pairing.

Q. Carl went to high school around here, does he ever, does he talk about that today?

JUSTIN ROSE: No, I was aware of that. I asked him kind of how far away he lives and things like that. I heard a couple people in the crowd kind shout out to him for support. So, yeah, he's obviously treated a little bit like a local boy.

Q. What would a win in the U.S. mean to you?

JUSTIN ROSE: It would mean, it would turn a decent year into a really good year for me. It will be a step -- it will be the next step up. Obviously I won tournaments in Europe, but yeah, this is kind of where I've been playing the majority of my golf this year so it will just turn what I felt has been a consistent year into a good year.

Q. When did you get here?

JUSTIN ROSE: Tuesday night.

Q. I guess that's not totally uncommon for you to arrive at a tournament on the Tuesday night, right?

JUSTIN ROSE: Well, in Europe you often arrive on a Tuesday night. But with jet lag I would like to be here on a Monday, really. I think it's much easier to fly this way than it is to go home. I have been very lucky with the morning tee time too. Because jet lag wise I'm up early, so it worked out well. I was pretty happy with my draw that I was off second out on Thursday.

Q. Not many guys are happy with that draw.

JUSTIN ROSE: I'm a bit of an early bird so I kind of like the morning starts.

Q. Do you have plans to play over here more, less, full-time?

JUSTIN ROSE: More, I think. More, yeah. Full-time, I'm not so sure about that. I would like to obviously still commit to European, try and play my 11 there. But a lot of that is dependent upon being top 50 in the world which I'm outside right now but I obviously anticipate that. But it's pretty easy to play both tours if you're top 50 in the world. If you're not then you made to make a big decision.

Q. So how much more are you talking about adding?

JUSTIN ROSE: Well, this is my 20th event here this year. So the way my year's turned out it's actually I played more here than I expected to at the start of the year. So sort of 20 events here and a few in Europe and, you know, be pretty happy with that.

CHRIS REIMER: Okay. Thank you, Justin.

End of FastScripts.

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