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THE 147TH OPEN

July 21, 2018

Justin Rose

Angus, Scotland, United Kingdom

Q. You tied the Open record at Carnoustie with a 64 today. Was everything working today?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, for sure. I felt like it was a beautiful morning to play golf. I felt like it was an opportunity to score well out there. The greens were somewhat receptive, obviously, and the pins weren't as tough as maybe the first couple of days. I felt like it was a typical setup for a moving day today. So it was nice to make that move.

I think momentum-wise, birdieing the very first hole, picking up where I left off last night, got me well into the round early.

There were some opportunities that slipped by on 2, 3, 4, 5, I felt, but birdieing 6 was the first birdie I've made on a par 5 all week. Just doing the simple things better today. Taking advantage of the holes I should take advantage of made the round much easier.

And really just I kept pushing myself to keep going, keep going. I had a nice round going, 5-under, but I played the last four holes, which are never easy here. I was really pushing myself to see if I could make a couple more, and I left it late. I birdied 17 and 18.

I thought 4 or 5-under was going to be a good round but nothing special. Not going to do enough for me going into tomorrow. I felt like those late couple birdies certainly will make tomorrow at least interesting.

Q. No bogeys on the card. You must be pleased with that on a course like this?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, for sure. One mental error around here, one bad bounce, one poor tee shot leads to a bogey. One bunker at the wrong time. I kept it together mentally, I guess concentrated well today. I felt a bit more in control with my game and my swing too. So to keep a clean sheet on this course obviously leads to good stuff.

Q. Are you expecting things to get a little bit more difficult for the later starters, or are you just hoping it will?
JUSTIN ROSE: I'm hoping it will. It feels a little benign right now. We need the tide to change and the winds to pick up. That's always part of it. You never know quite what to expect. It's forecast to build a little bit more this afternoon. It hasn't seem to pick up all week. Until tomorrow it's forecast to blow pretty hard.

Q. Does the forecast put pressure on the leaders, in your experience?
JUSTIN ROSE: Not really. I think that, if the conditions were to turn and it began to play much more difficult and they realise that 6, 7-under par is not really in the realm this afternoon, it could lead to frustration more than pressure, I think. But no, I think at this stage. It kind of shows them what's out there and gives them the intention that they need to look for birdies rather than play it safe.

Q. Last night was it, okay, time to restart? What was the mindset knowing, I did it, I got to the weekend. Now what?
JUSTIN ROSE: Gratitude just to be here. I think the first couple days were hard work and frustrating. But then there's a difference between being 3-over on Friday and way off the lead and 3-over and way off the lead on Saturday morning. You kind of feel a bit more grateful to be here rather than Friday night, you feel frustrated to be there.

So I think the birdie on 18 last night freed me up, and I'm just very happy to be out on this golf course and not down the road somewhere else this morning. So that might have been part of the shift in mindset today. Obviously, I had nothing to lose from that point of view.

Q. How long was it, Justin?
JUSTIN ROSE: How long was it?

Q. The putt last night.
JUSTIN ROSE: 13, 14 feet, I think.

Q. And the degree of difficulty?
JUSTIN ROSE: It was a soft, little putt, which are often the toughest. I think I was going back and forth on the read last night. The first half was very straight, and the second half was slightly left to right. I was kind of trying to make a decision on what would be my smart read. If I played too much left-to-right break, it could stay high. If I didn't play enough or didn't hit great putt, I wouldn't give myself a chance. Obviously, you've got 4 1/2 inches to play with. I was just trying to make a smart enough read. I think I ended up playing it about ball left last night, and that gave me a chance to kind of go in high and low, depending on not hitting the perfect putt.

Q. What's the plan for the rest of the day?
JUSTIN ROSE: Cup of tea, a bit of lunch. I've practiced hard this week. I'm not sure another day on the range is going to do me any good. So I might take this opportunity, which I have and the leaders don't, to really rest up. Obviously, the benefit of playing this morning is I get to recover a bit quicker than they do going into tomorrow. So I'm going to take advantage of that.

Q. How good was it to produce a round like this at The Open?
JUSTIN ROSE: It was lovely to get the crowd going and hear the crowd support me. Obviously, I think, they had Patrick Reed to follow and they had me. A couple of good groups to follow, and I felt like they latched onto some good golf. Once they saw guys going low, it was nice to get a following out there. I hadn't had a lot of momentum from the crowd all week, and today it started to change, and that was very enjoyable.

Q. Is Sean still here?
JUSTIN ROSE: He left last night. I don't know whether that's it.

Q. What did you work on?
JUSTIN ROSE: Basically, we worked on a lot this week, and I think sometimes you've got to let the dust settle a little bit. I just kind of fell back into some sort of simple, old, reliable swing feels, yeah. Thanks, guys.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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