BMW PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

October 7, 2020

Justin Rose

Wentworth Golf Club

Press Conference

BRIONY CARLYON: Your first time back in Europe this year, give us a sense of what it's like to be home and where everything's at.

JUSTIN ROSE: As you say, it's great to be home, lovely autumnal feel at the moment. Been a crazy year, and obviously first opportunity to really get back and play something on The European Tour, and to watch up with everybody, first time to experience the European Tour bubble side of things. I'm excited about playing golf. This is for me, the BMW PGA Championship is what I've always called a bucket list tournament. Delighted to be back.

Q. How are you finding the difference, slightly looser on the other side of the Atlantic, how are you finding the adjustment in the bubble?

JUSTIN ROSE: It's definitely an adjustment. I think there's maybe more sort of government-led restrictions here for sure. I think everyone takes is incredibly seriously. I've noticed that the overall amount of planning that probably goes into hosting and staging this tournament must be a lot of work going on behind the scenes to think through every single step. You've got sort of green laniards, and orange laniards for lads half in the bubble, half-out. A lot of thought going into that and every credit to everybody.

Still a good vibe on the range and everybody is in good spirits and I think we're all grateful to be playing in these really high-end tournaments.

Q. Are you finding it difficult to make the adjustment?

JUSTIN ROSE: I think we're semi-used to it to be honest with you. For me the adjustment is fine. I can focus on my golf and feel like I'm in a work mode, willing to make those sacrifices, and yeah, just get on with. It like I say, realise that there's a lot of people who don't have the opportunity to work as they would like, so just crack on.

Q. You've made some adjustments yourself, change of coach, change of clubs and everything. Has it had an impact on your game and are the results of that still to come?

JUSTIN ROSE: I think ultimately, the decision was, I turned 40 this year and maybe I was fully grown up and ready to do more by myself, and not have so much hand holding. I still have Sean Foley around me, who I can consult with if I have a question. That's the way I treat it. If I have a question, go to someone and get the relevant answer, but to take a little bit more ownership myself.

Hasn't worked out yet, but like you say, these things don't always happen immediately. The last couple days have actually clicked into a couple days of what I call growth. There's some light-bulb moments and it's a blend of some of the new things I've learned along the way and some of the old blue prints under Sean. I feel like I'm piecing all that together and also body-wise, being able to drill it and groove it in. You always see results on the range before you see it on the golf course, but like I said earlier, I feel positive and motivated at the moment. I'm enjoying my golf and my practise, so you can only hope that does lead to good stuff eventually.

Q. When you got to 40, was it time to reevaluate or when you were in lockdown, did you have time to look at things?

JUSTIN ROSE: I think it was more through the three months of being at home and being in lockdown and having space away from the Tour realising what I wanted, and also practising by myself for three months and figuring things out, and go back on Tour, why get a whole new set of thoughts of someone who has not seen you for three months.

For me, it was a transition time and time to make those changes. Like you say, they haven't paid off but we'll see. I tried to keep all my relationships intact. Like Bryson's coach, Chris Como says, you have to leave a trail of popcorn or whatever it is. You don't want to go too far on a tangent so you can't find your way back, so I've been cognisant of that, too.

Q. How big a test of patience has it all been for you trying to work through this and also on the SKY commentary, they said you were moving full time back to London?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, obviously patience-wise, it's been tested for sure. It's not fun not competing out there, the top end of the leaderboard, I've seen a couple of spells that keeps you buoyant. It's not all been doom and gloom. Competed decent at the PGA Championship, and was within two or three of being right there at the end.

So enough good stuff to keep the belief, and I feel like I'm working on ultimately a bit of a bigger plan and prize at the end of it all, so I'm trying to think about what's going to move the move the needle in my career. Of course winning more regularly, everyone is going to do that but for me it's winning the right tournaments, Masters down the road, get two opportunities at that within the next six months.

I'm very philosophical about the last eight months, moves me in the direction of achieving my career goals, which are ultimately trying to win majors I haven't won yet, which is three out of four. But yeah, we're in transition of spending more and more time in the U.K. and thinking about what's good for the kids long term. My brother has moved back to the U.K. and family, as you get older, touching 40, it's a reevaluation. I always believe in making the best decision you can at the time with about a ten-year view, trying to work in ten-year blocks and that's how I have treated my career. I was in Atlanta for ten years, Bahamas for ten years, and there could be a new phase coming. So something we are in the transition of figuring out.

Q. Are you impressed by Patrick Reed's coming over?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, absolutely. I think Patrick, I give him a lot of credit always for travelling and for playing as much as he does. He's a guy that loves the game of golf and full of praise for Wentworth. He came here, enjoyed the whole scene, the whole vibe, the whole tournament. There's easy excuses for people not to travel at the moment. We are all using it as an excuse not to get on the plane and do things if we don't have to.

Every credit to Patrick for showing up. One thing I'll regret, maybe in 2000 -- my 17th or 18th season, possibly not pushing hard enough when you have a chance to win The Race to Dubai, and now you're in a situation where you're definitely on the outside looking in on those races and those opportunities don't come around every year. So every credit to him for making the most of it.

Q. Going back to the move back over here, do you still have a home in the U.K.? Is there any sort of time frame?

JUSTIN ROSE: You know what, talking to the kids a lot about it and schooling and all this stuff, and just sort of looking at all factors involved. Timelines have been brought up with COVID. My son is over here in boarding school, so to get to see him more regularly is important to us. Mrs. Rose is the boss of all of this stuff, so if she says go, it gets done. You look at all these things, my mom still in great health, not getting younger, my brother is here, my cousins all living in one country, a dream and goal, yeah, I think it's in the cards for sure.

Q. Tommy was in saying that Lordy mentioned his playoff defeat and said, you've got to be in it to mess it up, shall we say. While you've been struggling --

JUSTIN ROSE: Lordy has been great at that. He does it for more than the money. He does it for the real passion. He wants to win golf tournaments. That's really why he caddies, and he's had a very successful career and he's seen a lot of stuff on the golf course.

Yes, I'm a good bag I guess in the grand scheme of things, but he's also been very patient. He knows enough about golf where he's been helpful through swing stuff. He stood right by me side by side, and I gave him the opportunity through the restart, because he left Monaco, I think it was 12 weeks on the road without seeing his wife. I gave him the opportunity to go home. I'm sure he wanted it, because things weren't going amazing, so I said you go home and I'll see you whenever, it was around the PGA Championship time or prior to the PGA. He said, no, we're in it together and yeah, so good for him.

Q. Do you think Bryson's approach is going to change golf? Will you change anything?

JUSTIN ROSE: For me personally, I've got to be smarter about how I challenge and compete and beat these guys and I think I've got to do it through a bit more freedom and through a position of gratitude of where I am in my career and what I've achieved and I just see everything as, in a sense, a bonus and use that mentality to have the freedom down the stretch to compete and to play with different frame of mind versus these guys that are clearly very intense.

For me, there's no value in putting on 30 pounds, one, health-wise, I don't think it would be good for me long-term and physically, the amount of work that's involved in that, overall, a static low I rise, not the thing for me to do in my career, but for him, every credit to him. See how sustainable it is over the years, and it has sort of changed the game. Rory on Instagram or whatever it was, posting 191 ball speed and it's obviously a push now and you do look at the advantage he's gaining, especially U.S. Open. I felt that Winged Foot was a golf course you had to drive it in the fairway and length wasn't the be-all and end-all, and clearly -- but the thing is, I think overlooking Bryson's putting and short game and the tournaments he's won, he's been right up there in the putting stats, so it isn't always about the long ball. He's been very clever at other elements of his game, but he's changing it and he's pushing the boundaries again, up to 211 miles an hour ball speed. I don't know where it stops.

Q. You would have seen yourself as a school boy around Wentworth in the autumn, great for match play. Do you think it can be as exciting for stroke-play event like we've got this week.

JUSTIN ROSE: I think it's hard to compare the two to be honest with you. I was fortunate enough to play in the Match Play a couple times in the autumn and probably one of my favourite events of all time. I'm not sure, I played in 2002, and 2007 I think it was and I remember a 36-hole match against Vijay. I think 36-hole matches are maybe a little unnecessary these days but I remember it being pretty cool and that match with Vijay went to pretty much the last hole. There could be a lot of excitement, I think this golf course, the finish here at Wentworth lends itself to exciting golf. Two par 5s to finish, that's very rare, 18, especially, considering there's no fans here this week, I think it's still got a nice kind of finish to it. There's a couple of hospitality areas which rhyme not sure what they are there for but the leaderboard, there's a couple of nice BMWs around, and it still feels like a very big tournament coming up 18, so hopefully there will be that exciting finish. Stroke play by the nature of it becomes match play if it's tight down the stretch. But if someone is stretched out six ahead, unfortunately can't do much about it. There's not a lot of excitement to it, and hopefully we get a few key players in with a chance to win.

Q. Can you elaborate, your light bulb moment, was that more a mental thing, technical thing? What were you feeling?

JUSTIN ROSE: I think it's always chicken-and-egg. The mental becomes confidence, and does the confidence come before the technique, or does the technique come before the confidence? I think probably you have to, for me, it's like a feel, when I make the right move and then something happens at impact where you feel like basically nothing happens at impact. It's just very smooth. It's very calm. The things that you've worked on prior to that moment of impact, you can kind of -- if they are strong feels and they connect with you mentally, I think that's what you're looking for. You look for that impact, you go, wow, that's different, that feels like golf.

Even at our level I think there's only one or two golf shots you hit a day where you go, that's. It everything else is a slight glance or manipulation of the club where it's not quite on the intended line but it's those two or three shots that you hit and you feel, and if you relate back to a feeling that you know is repeatable, that's when you get excited. So yeah, for me it was a technical feel on the range that then elicited the feeling that I'm after internally that hopefully then produces the confidence, so there you go, a big circle.