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WGC ACCENTURE MATCH PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP

February 24, 2007

Justin Rose

TUCSON, ARIZONA

Q. Well, sometimes you're really not playing well. Sometimes you play decent and you just get steamrolled. This is that case. Talk to me about your quarterfinal.
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, all in all disappointing. But it's been a great week on many levels. I played some good golf. But yeah, today -- that's what match play is all about. That's what this tournament is all about, really: One match at a time and never quite know what to expect.
Trevor played very, very well today. He changed his putter and obviously it was a good decision. Yeah, birdies are tough to beat any day.

Q. About his game, it just seemed like he was clicking on every cylinder. Is he going to be extremely tough to beat this afternoon and tomorrow?
JUSTIN ROSE: Well, I think it's possibly a big advantage to him only having played 14 holes come this afternoon. It's obviously a long day, 36 holes. So that's going to be an advantage for him.
Obviously I wanted to push him a little bit further there. But two quick losses at the end kind of finished the match sooner than I was anticipating.
But yeah, he's playing very, very well. He seemed to drive -- yeah, everything was pretty solid today. I think any time Trevor makes a few putts he's going to shoot pretty well.

Q. It's been a good week. Even though today didn't go your way, having got through some big matches early on?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, exactly. I think I probably played -- if it was stroke play, I would have played some of the best golf out of anybody the first three days. As you say, sometimes you just run up against a guy who's hot, and that is match play.
But it was out there for the taking today, and really I think that's probably what you need to do to win a match today. I missed putts on 5, 6, 7, pretty short putts, and I think that definitely got Trevor a little lead on me.
I made some good putts around the turn there to try and keep things going and to try and get my momentum going, but every time I made a good putt Trevor would birdie the next hole and I could never quite get back into the game.

Q. Difficult playing against a mate, as well?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yes and no. I mean, there wasn't much said out there, really, to be honest with you. Both playing as hard as we could. This stage of the game obviously it just comes down to business.

Q. Tee to green you played well this week. Maybe just not quite hot enough with the putter?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I would say. I didn't read the greens well all week. Even from my first practice round I had a skins game with Geoff Ogilvy and Adam Scott, and I just never read the greens well all week.
Quite a bit of grain on them, and unfortunately, yeah. I made one or two putts the last couple of days, but if you're going to win this tournament I think you certainly need to make plenty.

Q. You played a practice round with Trevor in Orlando before you guys went out to Nissan, right?
JUSTIN ROSE: Uh-huh.

Q. Was he playing this well? You've played a lot with him. Is this probably the best you've ever seen him?
JUSTIN ROSE: He's been playing well for a while. Look at the year he had last year, the breakout year, whatever. He is in the world, 12th or something, so it's really expected from him, really. He's been playing well.
I knew it was going to be just one of those games, and I expected to go out there and maybe play a little better than I did. I played okay, but okay probably doesn't get it done today.

Q. You've played worse and won I would guess, haven't you?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I've played worse and won for sure, there's no doubt. I mean, a lot of guys have played worse and won this week and that. It's one of those things.
But obviously today it was perfect. It was the quarterfinals, it was a day to get hot, and he did.

Q. Would you like to see more of this format? You play here, you play Wentworth, but that's probably it for the year?
JUSTIN ROSE: No, I don't think so. I really enjoy it once or twice a year, but it's not really a true reflection of each individual golfer. It brings in different skills this week for sure, and it's great and it's a wonderful tournament and we all love it.
But if there was more and more of it, I don't know. I think tournament golf is about 72 holes. It's about playing against the golf course. I think that's the easiest way to measure how good somebody is week in and week out is stroke play golf.
Certainly this is a change. This is a great tournament, very unique tournament. I think that's why it's so popular, because it is unique.

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