MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 10, 2021

Justin Rose

Quick Quotes

Q. How would you sum up your round today?

JUSTIN ROSE: Well, yeah, it was a tricky round and a lot happened today. Obviously teeing off it was relatively normal I would say and then obviously once that little band of storm was approaching, wind really picked up and sort of 6 and 7 became pretty tricky for that 30 minutes before the horn went, and then after that it was a very different feel. There was sort of like 30 or 40 minutes where it was pretty calm, wasn't any rain, course softened up, and there was an opportunity, I think, obviously as Hideki proved, to make some birdies.

You had to make an adjustment. The greens slowed up a good foot, so everything changed a little bit. I actually didn't putt it great for three or four holes, but then finally got my eye back in and got in touch with the speed again and putted great coming in luckily, because I had struggled a little bit.

But there were a couple other interesting things. I got a couple fliers from the fairway, just that little bit of moisture on the ground, and the edges of the greens became really greasy, meaning that they're so sticky normally but with a little bit of moisture on them the ball was really skidding through, so it enabled me to play a couple chip shots obviously on 14 and 15 where I was able to get a bit more skid up the banks, which probably wasn't a bad thing in those two situations.

Q. When you started out birdie-birdie, seemed like it might be a really special day. What happened? It ended up being a grind for you.

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, listen, you start birdie-birdie, it doesn't really mean much. This golf course, you've just got to keep playing it. Hideki has got to keep playing it. There's not really a linear progression to 12-under par or whatever you might need to be. You know there's going to be those dips and peaks and valleys out there.

Yeah, I didn't play well enough today, simple as that really. I think all in all, to have a shot tomorrow, I'm delighted. Have that freedom to take a run at it, and of course I'd love to kind of stay with it just a little bit better. When I made the putt on No. 8 -- sorry, No. 12 to get to 8, I thought I was leading the golf tournament, and then I saw Hideki had --

Q. You were leading it for like 15 seconds.

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, you know, and so I've been playing with the lead the whole week, and obviously there's been an hour of golf where Hideki has sort of moved out there in front. You know, all the guys chasing at 7-under par are all capable of that little run that Hideki has had, so it's all up for grabs tomorrow.

Q. How important was the recovery on 18?

JUSTIN ROSE: Oh, yeah, to get it finished today was a huge bonus. I actually didn't think we had much chance, but they did a great job getting us back out there. I wasn't really sure if that's what I wanted at the time, but it proved to be a great decision.

Q. But the recovery on 18 and the putt --

JUSTIN ROSE: Oh, yeah, obviously the momentum, physical recovery of finishing tonight is huge, but listen, that recovery on 18, I did the same on 17 and the same on 15 and the same on 14, so it was definitely -- pretty happy just to be able to walk into the clubhouse before I dropped another shot.

Q. What's the most important thing you have to do tomorrow?

JUSTIN ROSE: Probably drive it better, to be honest with you. The drives that hit the fairway today were a little spinny as well, so obviously I wasn't really connecting with the back of the ball just as I would like. And that's it.