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THE 148TH OPEN

July 19, 2019

Justin Rose

Portrush, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

JUSTIN ROSE: It was a nice morning's golf for sure. The wind never really picked up. We had it in a nice direction, south-southeast, and then it shifted and there was a thought that we were going to play 16, 17, 18 downwind, as well. But as we got to 15 it switched back, and then obviously that seemed to bring the rain in.

It only started raining on the 18th hole for us. We really got lucky. I knew it was going to rain at some point today, and I was expecting it a little earlier in the round. So we did well to I guess avoid that.

Whenever you do feel like you're on the right end of the draw, it's almost more important to play well to make the most of it.

Q. Is it as good as you could have expected it today?
JUSTIN ROSE: Condition-wise, sure. I putted really well today. I had a couple of poor chips actually out there. And when I chipped 10, 12, 15 feet on occasion I was able to hole that putt to keep the momentum up. The only bogey I made was on 4, much like yesterday actually. So I kept it pretty clean.

Again, the putter was pretty much the star of the show. Again, I feel like I'm playing better daily, which is nice.

Q. Your putting was extremely good at Pebble. How much better is your game tee to green now than it was then?
JUSTIN ROSE: Pebble I battled through the week, much like I'm doing at the moment. But I feel like I'm a bit clearer in my thought process. Pebble was different swing every day, trying to find it. Whereas this week I've settled into it, a thought process, game plan. I feel like I'm good with the momentum this week.

Q. Nice end of the draw?
JUSTIN ROSE: Lordie is on the bag, he's lucky. Yeah, I've always not liked being on the wrong side of the draw. I feel like I'm in for ten years of good weather.

Q. (Inaudible.)
JUSTIN ROSE: Sure, that weekend it would be worth everything. If you could put it all together when it counts. Obviously last year it almost counted. It was great. But it was important for me to have that weekend last year because it made me believe I could win this tournament again, nice to get in contention and feel the crowd. Nice to pick up where I left off last year.

Q. It tends to be a different preparation for this week.
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I think so, having not played there's always an element of are you going to be fresh, and you hope your freshness carries you through to carry you through the weekend. And there's always the element of not being tournament sharp the first couple of days. But I've done a really good job of the sharpness, the scoring side of the game.

Sometimes you can play well the first couple of days and you get sloppy with the short game or putting and you don't get as much out of your game. I feel like the mental sharpness, the putting, short game has held me together this week. And now feel the benefits of not playing will come into effect on the weekend.

Q. You got a good reception out there. What's it been like this week at Portrush?
JUSTIN ROSE: They've been brilliant to everybody, from what I can tell. The Northern Irish lads are getting brilliant support, which you would hope that would be the case. But even Tony Finau, but an American lad, young, on the scene. A lot of these guys have never seen him play before, getting tons of support out there.

It's really nice it's for everybody, which is cool.

Q. You've tailored your schedule this week to peak at majors, find yourself in contention again. How do you feel going into the weekend?
JUSTIN ROSE: I took a month off in February, and the whole idea behind that was to be fresh enough for the majors and the big run of golf we're all in. It didn't really pan out the first couple of majors but hopefully I'm benefitting from it now.

Whether it leads to the performance we want, we'll wait and see. But scheduling-wise I've tried to create that.

Q. (Inaudible.)
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, absolutely. I was very aware of Tommy posted a good round and saw a clip of him birdieing 18 while I was out there on the golf course. And Westie had a strong finish and crept up on the leaderboard.

Q. Lee says there no expectation on him. Do you feel there is some expectation on you?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yes and no. I hope there is. I'm probably one of the best players in the world, and there should be expectation when you're in contention to be able to continue to play well in that situation. Yeah, from that point of view, yes.

But too much expectation, no. I don't think so. I think I should go out and be who I am and be comfortable with it tomorrow. Yeah, I hope there's expectation.

Q. How do you manage that, then?
JUSTIN ROSE: I don't think there's anymore expectation from outside than I have for myself. So that's easy. I think when you have to deal with everyone else's expectation and it's not in line with how you feel that's difficult. But I'm comfortable with how much I expect of myself and that makes it easier tomorrow and the next day and the day after that.

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