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ARNOLD PALMER INVITATIONAL PRESENTED BY MASTERCARD

March 7, 2019

Justin Rose

Orlando, Florida

Q. After taking a month off are you pleased, did you meet your expectations over that first round?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I would say all in all, yes. Obviously there's always moments in the round where things could go the other way and I had a putt on the 17th hole, which is my 8th of the day, to go 3-under and things are rolling quite nicely at that point. But it was tricky out there, I got to say. Obviously it warmed up towards the end of our round. As it warmed up the wind shifted south to the -- from the north to the south, so it kind of felt like our group played a lot of holes into the wind today. That's at least the perception. And just didn't make the key putts at the right time to really get the round going. But all in all under par, we all know there's some good scores out there this morning, but all in all, under par the first round back is fine.

Q. What did you think of the rough? I noticed on 8 you elected to pitch out. That must have been a bad lie in combination with the rough there?
JUSTIN ROSE: Absolutely. I had no chance there on 8 whatsoever. So kind of it was nice to make par the hard way, obviously to grind it in there. And those are the types of moments that if you get too greedy trying to go over the water to a tight pin, to a very shallow green, I mean you can end up making six there. So that's what I was trying to guard against but really nice to walk off with four.

Q. What does it mean to you and what does it add to be an ambassador to this event with Arnold Palmer's name on it?
JUSTIN ROSE: It's a huge honor, obviously. This event, the status of this event has been amazing through the years and rightly so. And to be involved with it in a small way but a meaningful way for me has been a huge honor for sure.

Q. Assess your round, please.
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, so I think I had my chances today just to shoot a decent round, to get it somewhere in the 60s. But just felt I had a little bit of a hard time reading the greens, hit some putts that stayed high, under read a couple other putts obviously that broke across the hole. So try not to get frustrated with that. And then made some -- basically I had a putt to go 3-under on the 8th hole of the day and then after the first hole I was back to even. So I really had a bit of a momentum stall around the turn, but then I feel like I did, all in all, to get under par at the end of day.

Q. I think you had some kids from your foundation following you today. I was wondering about how much you noticed that and did you interact with them throughout the round at all?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, it's something we do every year here at Bay Hill. So they come out, they meet my wife, they walk a couple holes, they meet me at the turn. They normally do 1, 2, and 3, I stop on the second hole for a photograph, it's like a well oiled machine. But I always like to interact with the kids and try and have a little bit of fun with them. Obviously it's hard because I like to keep up place of play and make sure I'm ready to hit my shot. I never want the kids coming out and being a distraction to my playing partners. So I do as much as I can. But they're off with Amy Saunders right now. She hosts a lunch for them and it's just a fantastic day for them.

Q. Is this unique, like is this the tournament where they created that or are there other tournaments?
JUSTIN ROSE: This is the only tournament. Our foundation mainly serves kids in the Orlando area, so these kids are some of the kids that we help with the Blessings in a Backpack program and support in other ways through our foundation.

Q. A lot of guys when they win out here, they can look back at a tough loss, they kind of feel them and they realize, well I have to work on this or that or whatever it is. I was wondering when you won the U.S. Open or the FedExCup or the Olympic gold medal if there was a tough loss that kind of preceded that like the one that got away that kind of kicked you in the butt and gave you some lessons that helped you with your big victory.
JUSTIN ROSE: There's no one moment. No, you get used to losing out here, so you got to kind of -- you've always got to try and build momentum out of nothing sometimes and you got to take progress out of weeks that you finish 10th, 15th, 20th. Elements of your game that feel good, you got to build on it and elements of your game that you know need work you got to work on it. You got to always constantly grow. There's never a moment -- and sometimes you have to re-learn lessons. You can have a tough loss and learn a lesson and you think you learned it but something similar to happen again, five years later. So you just got to roll with the punches.

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