MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 8, 2021

Justin Rose

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Good evening. I'd like to welcome our first round leader, Justin Rose, to the interview room who shot an incredible 7-under 65, two off the course record, four-shot lead. It's the fourth time you've been a first round leader. But that incredible stretch of those ten holes where you were 9-under par driven by the eagle on the 8th and the seven birdies to follow leading to a back nine 30, congratulations on the great play, Justin.

JUSTIN ROSE: Thank you.

THE MODERATOR: Let me open up to any questions.

Q. Obviously it was tough at the start. What did the eagle at 8 do for you to give you a spark?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, it maybe settled me down if I'm honest. I kind of knew 2-over through 7 is not the end of the world, but also knew you're going in the wrong direction. You can't win the golf tournament today. Even with a 65 you can't win it today. You can only probably lose it today, obviously.

And I was very aware being a couple over through 7 that things weren't -- I didn't hit the panic button yet, but I reset just prior to that and thought if I can get myself back around even par, you know, that would be a good day's work.

So obviously the eagle, boom, straight back in there, and I guess almost just piggybacking with a birdie straightaway at No. 9, suddenly I turned in 1-under, and I could feel like I could actually leave the front nine behind as a job well done and kind of move to the back nine and try and build a score.

From that point on I kind of was aware that the lead was only three, and if I played a decent back nine it was basically a very good day's work. And then I just got on a great run and was just trying to stay out of my own way and just try to get it to the clubhouse and keep doing what I was doing.

I putted the ball beautifully and read the greens unbelievably well. If you had said to me walking up the 8th hole, I'd have said no chance, this course is playing a little too tricky for that. But it's incredible. It's a good reminder that you just never know what can happen out there, just to stick with it on the golf course.

Q. I heard you on the telecast talking about what Sean told you earlier in the week about your swing. Can you just recount that story and expand on it a little bit? I think he said you're not there, but close enough, something along those lines?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, listen, we've been putting in a good bit of work the last couple weeks, and I feel like we've fallen upon some clarity in the direction I want to go with my swing. And he literally said to me, "Buddy, I don't know if you're close or not, but I just know it's better."

And, you know, that's kind of what we came in here with. Obviously I haven't played competitive golf for a month or so, so I never quite knew what was going to happen exactly. But I was very anxious for the gun to go off today, and practice was practice and I felt like I was laboring through my practice rounds a little bit and ready to get out there and have the scoreboard in my hand.

But yeah, listen, what Sean and I are working on, it's very simple, it's about keeping the face as square to the path for longer. Sometimes when I get my body of out of position, my clubface gets a little too active through impact. And we're just working on a couple principles that kind of help leads towards more solid, more consistent ball flight. Pretty simple, but doing it is obviously the tricky part.

Q. If someone would have told you you would have shot 65, you would have said, "What?" And can you tell us the story about hooking up with David this week?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I've played this course many, many tiles, my 15th Masters, maybe, and my best to date is 67. I felt like the conditions today were not the day to go hit them and have your personal best out there. It was pretty windy -- well, windy enough to be tricky, and obviously the greens are incredibly firm and fast. The pin placements were fair, certainly not easy, but fair, and if you did hit the right shot at the right time, you could take advantage.

But yeah, I didn't feel like today was the day for a 65 if I'm honest. And Clarky, who -- David Clark, I call him Clarky, he's been caddying for me all year. I finished with Lordy at the end of last year and felt like I wanted some fresh energy out there. He's a great friend of mine. We've known each other for a long, long time. We go back to my amateur golf days, and we became friends, and he was trying to be an aspiring pro golfer himself. At some point he was playing mini-tours in Florida and I don't think were going particularly well for him. It was sort of 2004, 2005, I had a situation where I was caddieless, and he fancied giving it a crack.

And so, yeah, we had a good little run in 2004, 2005, 2006 even, and then actually we stopped working right before the 2007 Masters. This was our first round at Augusta together.

Q. Just to make sure, how is the back? Because I was there five weeks ago at Arnie's.

JUSTIN ROSE: The back's good. I don't know what it was or what it was all about, but it was a 7-day bit of a lockup and just struggled to be able to get down into the golf shot. It was annoying timing, really, to have to pull out of a weekend of a tournament and not be able to make the tee for the Thursday of THE PLAYERS. Could have been a seven days at a different time of the season and would have been a non-event.

It was just awkward timing. But I could have probably played the Match Play and the Valero the last couple weeks, but I chose to put in some work. I felt like that's what my game needed in order to try to get ready for today and this week.

Q. When and why did you get back with Sean?

JUSTIN ROSE: Why? Because I think I just -- listen, I was doing a few different things during the first lockdown phase when we were away from playing golf, whenever that was, March, April, May 2020, and I definitely learned a few things, but learning something isn't necessarily helpful. You've got to learn what works for you individually, and there's no one who knows that better than Sean for me.

You know, I feel like also he's also, I think, really honed in on his approach recently in the last sort of year or two, as well. And I think that obviously I wasn't playing well and my swing didn't look good at all, and I was falling into some interesting habits. And I think that, you know, I wanted to kind of get back to working in a good direction and wanted to have his support out here on TOUR.

Yeah, he's obviously a wonderful friend of mine and one of the greatest people I know, and yeah, just really good to be back on board and working hard together and kind of committed to seeing if we could turn the ship around a bit.

Q. When did you hook up again?

JUSTIN ROSE: Back end of last year around the ZoZo. But really were not able to put in a lot of work until really the Florida Swing if I'm honest.

Q. Having said you haven't played in a month, sounds like your expectations were low and you didn't know what kind of game you've had. Now that you've shot 65, how do you manage your expectations going forward?

JUSTIN ROSE: That's a great question. That's going to be the trick the rest of the week. Hopefully you can just run off instinct a little bit. Obviously I've competed in these big tournaments quite a few times, and I've got one of them to my name, but we're looking for more.

But I've had some situations in my career that should stand me in good stead, but listen, I think to keep the expectations relatively low even in this situation is not a bad thing for me for the remainder of the week and just keep it one shot at a time, keep committing on this golf course, you can never get ahead of yourself on, we've seen it many times around here.

But it's all about commitment, and I think it's about enjoying it. I'm obviously walking the walk with Clarky and just trying to really enjoy being out here. I think being grateful to be out there today after a month off was kind of part of the mindset today. So it would be crazy to try and change that too much going into tomorrow.

Q. If you just run over the chronology, the span in which you worked with Sean earlier, and after that, is being back with him just a bit of a reminder, because he was with you when you were at your best? Is there a comfort factor there?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, Sean and I have been working with each other since 2009 and right until 2020. So through the meat of my career, through the peak of my career, 100 percent. Everything I've achieved in the game of golf I've done it with Sean by my side.

Yeah, 100 percent. I felt like I was tailing off a little bit with my own game through 2019, and I think the lockdown, just being left to my own devices for a little bit too long was probably not a good thing, and I think that just kind of obviously upset the apple cart a little bit.

Yeah, 100 percent, it's great to be back with Sean, and I trust him implicitly. And yeah, it definitely -- just to have him out here on the road and to be able to have access to his knowledge I think is good. Because like I said earlier, I've learned some new things or thought I've learned more concepts about the swing, but they don't necessarily work for me and my game. He knows what works for me and my game.

Q. Curious, how many interviews have you done before you came here?

JUSTIN ROSE: How many interviews? In what sense?

Q. Since you left the 18th green.

JUSTIN ROSE: Two, really -- three. The two TV stations inside and the Butler Cabin.

Q. So this is the fourth. I'm just wondering, are you able to stay in your own bubble and block out the extra attention that comes from leading the Masters?

JUSTIN ROSE: The big leaderboard creates enough pressure. This stuff, I know a lot of you guys now, it feels really part of the job now if I'm honest. I try to be truthful. I try to just say what's on my mind and how I'm feeling and talk from my heart out here, but I think my mindset can change a lot from now to tomorrow morning and when I play.

So I haven't had a chance to really reflect on it, and I haven't had a chance to come down from the round of golf. So really tomorrow hasn't started yet for me. I'm happy to talk freely right now, and I'll worry about tomorrow in a little bit.

THE MODERATOR: Just for historical records, would you mind just going through holes 8 to 17, just the birdies and the eagles and clubs you hit and length of putt you made.

JUSTIN ROSE: I hit a good tee shot on No. 8. I was in range of reaching the green, but I was right between 3-wood and 5-wood. So I tried to sort of turn a 5-wood in there and did a good job of that. Maybe overturned it a little bit. Got a nice bit of help from the left-hand ridges and mounding and holed about a ten-foot birdie putt.

No. 9, I hit driver and a 9-iron into three or four feet behind the hole.

10, I hit 3-wood around the corner and hit 6-iron to 25 feet. Rolled it in across the green.

No. 12, I hit an 8-iron in there to about six feet.

13, I actually purposely played it conservatively. I hit 5-wood off the tee, so I couldn't go for the green. I then laid it up with a 7-iron and then pitched it up the green. It was a pin placement I just liked the wedge shot for, really, and pitched it up to two, three feet.

16, I hit a 9-iron to 20 feet.

17, I hit driver, wedge to four feet.

And 18, I didn't do anything special.

Sounds easy when you just put it together like that.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations on an incredible first round. Wishing you all the best this week.