THE 152ND OPEN

July 18, 2024

Justin Rose

Mixed Zone

JUSTIN ROSE: Definitely happy to keep it clean out there. Bogey-free is probably the thing I'm happiest about. Walked off a touch -- felt like there was actually -- obviously we all walk off a golf course going, oh, it could have been better, but I actually felt like there was three or four out there for me today had I been a little bit warmer with the putter.

But hit a lot of good putts, too, so just kind of had to stay with it. Felt like I had a good handle on the course. I felt like I knew where the course was playing tough, where the opportunities were, and yeah, stayed focused enough to hit a lot of good shots today.

Q. Great par save on 8, as well. What happened on the tee there?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, obviously you play the whole golf course wind off the right. You get on to the 8th, it's suddenly off the left. There's a bit more to take in. It started to rain a little bit, so there was a lot of noise with the umbrellas, and I think right in my backswing someone must have dropped an umbrella or something. Yeah, came out of the shot a little bit, and obviously with the wind off the left, you're not going to get away with it on that particular hole. Given that, I was playing so nicely, and once you're in the bunker down there, you're like, kind of anything can happen.

Yeah, it was a tough miss, but great up-and-down, and obviously that was great to keep the momentum up in my round at that point for sure.

Q. On the putting, did you switch to a new putter last week? If so, can you talk about what you're using now?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I switched putters just for a change of feel. Also I think just slow greens, just fancied a different feel more than anything with links golf. So yeah, just kind of just changed it up for a different visual just for a period of time and see if we can mind some magic.

But yeah, we'll see how that goes because --

Q. What are you using?

JUSTIN ROSE: It's a Scotty. Don't even know what it's called, to be honest with you.

Q. What's been your mindset this week coming into the event, obviously having to go through qualifying and been successful there to play here? I'm curious what your thoughts were coming into the week.

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, probably just a bit more gratitude just to be here from that point of view. 20 years probably-ish ballpark where you make your schedule in December and you go, okay, Masters, Open, U.S. Open, PGA, how do we plan around that, and this year it's like, hang on a second, I'm not guaranteed in the Open or the U.S. Open at that point, either. Had to do a little bit of extra hard work just to make sure I was here.

Obviously it's a special event for me being a Brit. It's the one I've dreamed about winning ever since I was a kid, so obviously you've got to be in it to win it. That was the first part of the jigsaw puzzle was to make sure I qualified.

Q. Does it take you back to the start of your career? Obviously you had to qualify at the start and that's where it all started.

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, of course. Yeah, you can if you choose to do that. Obviously you come in -- I don't know whether you do or you don't. I think when you come in the first couple of times you play The Open you're soaking in the experience. Now you kind of come in, you know what to expect. It's not like you can just come in 20 years later and go, oh, should be a good week and we'll just learn from it. It's a little bit of a ticking clock there just to get the job done at some point.

But yeah, coming in and appreciating the opportunity I think is kind of what it's all about, yeah.

Q. Is that in the back of your mind, a ticking clock a little bit about a tournament like this?

JUSTIN ROSE: I mean, yeah, it's obvious, isn't it. 44 soon. History would suggest. But I think The Open offers you that opportunity maybe more than some of the other majors.

Yeah, still feel very kind of confident in myself that I can actually still improve tomorrow versus today. As long as that's the case, I'll keep kind of believing for sure.

Q. You said that you felt you can still win this championship. After 18 holes in the bank, how are you feeling right now about that?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I mean, I still believe that all right. I've been around long enough to know that I can -- I know I'm capable of. I know how I'm feeling in the moment, can kind of get inspired by the situation. Been pretty good in my career at sort of winning the special ones. Yeah, that's kind of what I've been really working hard for the last two, three years is to have the opportunity late in my career to have a couple of special amazing opportunities. That's what's keeping me going.

Will I compete week in and week out at the very, very, very highest level at 44? Who knows, but I still feel like I'm a good enough golfer to find my spots and find my angles and have my weeks where it all comes together.

Q. Talk about the Ryder Cup exemption, when you learned. Did you sort of assume when you were in it --

JUSTIN ROSE: No, I never even -- I'm one of the worst. I don't even know how all these things work, honestly. I never even heard of that before.

Q. There hadn't been one until last year.

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, it makes sense in a way with six picks now and six -- when you've got 10 guys qualifying, typically they're in it anyway, so what the hell, make an exemption, it doesn't make a difference to the tournament. It's typically a long shot whether it even makes a difference, that type of category or that type of exemption. So I don't know whether it should be or shouldn't be still there. But no, I wasn't even aware of it, to be honest.

Q. What would you like the weather to be for the next three days for yourself?

JUSTIN ROSE: So I think if you're playing golf, I think today is great. I think, what is it, 12 to 15 miles an hour? That's kind of the edge where you're in control of the golf ball and the elements aren't in control, and I think that's a nice way to play. I think when it gets more than that, the elements become -- they dictate a little bit more than the player dictates, and I think that's where it just becomes, okay, just hang in, hang tough, see what happens. But I think if you can stay feeling like you're in control over the good shots and if you hit a good shot you'll likely know what the outcome is going to be, that's a nice way to play to golf, and I think that's how it was today.

Q. So this is a fair chance?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, firm but fair. Stiff breeze but not getting out of control, yeah.

Q. With the par-5, 6th hole, that's about 620 yards today. Did you think a par-5 needs to be that long for it to be challenging, the way equipment is?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, that was obviously into the wind today, so it was just a legit three-shot hole, and the good thing about that is it's just a chain reaction hole. If you miss the tee shot, you're not only wedging it down there out of the rough and now you've got that sort of 2-iron into the green.

I think you can reach in three, but if you hit two good shots, you're going to have a wedge in your hand and a chance to make birdie versus if you hit one of those first two shoots poorly, you're struggling for par. I think some of those longer holes, the chain reaction of a poor first or second shot actually comes more into play.

Q. Is there anything about Troon that fits your game in particular?

JUSTIN ROSE: Not really. I just feel like I've clicked into the golf course with a strategy of how to play it. I think there's no secrets to it really.

Q. What do you like most about it?

JUSTIN ROSE: Just the traditional nature of it, out and back. Two different wind directions, kind of get comfortable one way, then suddenly the golf course changes and you've got to sort of flip how everything feels coming in. It's just quite unique like that.