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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY MORGAN STANLEY

June 1, 2008

Justin Rose

DUBLIN, OHIO

LAURA HILL: Justin, thanks for joining us here in the media center at the Memorial Tournament. I know you would have liked to have won, but you said a couple times out there this is a good confidence booster going into the next couple weeks.
JUSTIN ROSE: I just come off three missed cuts in a row to finish second. I guess I'll take it at the start of the week. But at the same time I felt great about today. I really felt like it could have been my day. I felt like I played, performed really well. I was great mentally out there. And just the putts didn't go in, when winning is all about making the putts at the right time and I had a hot putter this week and today I felt like I was hitting decent putts, but I just didn't quite have the confidence in the read today.
I had a lot of putts -- I think I was just maybe the positions I found myself on the greens. And I was hitting very defensive putts because you know on this golf course if you had a go at a putt you have six feet coming back.
LAURA HILL: Take some questions.

Q. Can you talk about the second shot at No. 12 and then the mishap at 13 a little bit, apparently hit a sprinkler head?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, my second shot at 12 was deliberately to play for the bunker. I probably put myself in the worst spot on the whole golf course there. You can't go long on that hole. And yeah, so basically I was playing for four. And I really looked around the green and thought do I chip it into the bunker nearest me or over to the front bunker and I figured that was easier. I hit a great shot to four feet and walked away happy with bogey. I think that was the mindset, try to give myself that, like four was a good score here and made a great swing over the next tee and I guess at that point I knew I needed to make some birdies coming in.
I probably got a little bit overly aggressive on that, the second shot on 13. Tight pin, and just tugged it a few yards left of the pin and obviously hit a sprinkler head. That was always going to be a tough bunker shot from left of the green there so whether it actually hurt me or not, I don't really know. But you couldn't really afford to be left of the hole.

Q. How far over the green did it go?
JUSTIN ROSE: I think actually it would have gone further. I think it then hit a tree and came down. But it was about 20 yards over the back of the green.

Q. Talk about the holing out the bunker shot, how you suddenly burst from the pack two ahead out of a kind of a wild adventure on the front nine.
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I think I went one ahead at that point. I know Jerry and Kenny birdied the par-5 to go to 7. Obviously I made the bunker shot. I was just planning obviously getting it up-and-down and keeping my round going. But that was a nice bonus there. I holed a couple of great bunker shots this week. So -- but at that point I was just kind of just trying to stay in the moment and knew I was right in the tournament at that point.
I made two great swings into 10. Had a great chance for birdie at 11. So at that point I was playing really, really well and then obviously the bogeys on 12 and 13 were untimely and obviously ultimately cost me the tournament. But again, I had a great eagle chance on 15. Bounced back really well there. And just again it slid by, the putt did.

Q. Did you go in the back bunker on 12?
JUSTIN ROSE: I was over the back bunker. I was in the hill back in the back left rough.

Q. Kenny went in the bunker and I just wondered on that hole, was there -- I don't know how much wind you had out there today. Was there indecision? Were you not playing at the flag, because it was so close to the hazard on the right?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, you're trying to hit it like 20, 30 feet left of the pin. You're trying to get it on the right level, but the very left edge of it and that bunker probably about, well a yard left of where you're trying to hit it. It's not so much a line that's important on that hole it's the depth that you hit the ball. The distance you hit the ball. It's such a narrow green. And that's where the indecision and the wind plays havoc. The wind I found was a lot more swirly today, it wasn't constant in the same direction. So that made it really tricky.

Q. Similar question about No. 6. Three of you guys air mailed that green. I'm wondering what was going on there?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, the whole week that green complex just baffled me. The wind, I couldn't match it one day there. And the first morning there was no wind I managed to hit it stiff and make birdie. But the rest of the three days I was over the back of that green. I think that the wind was into you and then I think the back of that green is just very sheltered and I took it into account a little bit, but as I hit it it felt like it switched downwind because my ball just took off. I could see the crowd just going (Indicating) then you know you're in trouble.

Q. What club did you hit there?
JUSTIN ROSE: 6-iron.

Q. Now that we're through 72 holes, there was a lot of talk during the tournament by the players about the conditions. Kenny's winning score was like the highest in more than 20 years. Overall on balance, what did you think of the setup, the conditions, the way the tournament was?
JUSTIN ROSE: I think I really love this tournament. I believe it's a second shot golf course here. I think the way the rough is off the tee, to be honest with you, I didn't actually hit it in the rough much. I think this golf course gives you that opportunity that you actually if you drive the ball half decent you really shouldn't hit it in the rough off the tee. I thought the rough around the greens was probably a little bit too extreme. There was just a lot of occasions where it took the skill of chipping out of it. You were just trying to make bogey and get out of there.
So that's, but that's part of the strategy of this golf course though is to not leave yourself in those situations where you just can't simply get it up-and-down. So therefore I like the test, I enjoy the golf course. I think four inches instead of six inch rough might have been better. But it's cool. What can you do? You can't have it always -- I think obviously the first day the course played perfectly with no wind. The last three days have been windy and it's been tough. Sometimes you can't account for Mother Nature.
LAURA HILL: Great. Thanks, Justin.
JUSTIN ROSE: Thanks, guy, appreciate it.

End of FastScripts

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