Augusta, Georgia
At the Masters this week, a thought caught in the minds of the patrons: Surely, it’s Justin time.
On a golf course the place each gap is known as after a flower, just one participant bears the identify of 1, and none has been as shut to full bloom at Augusta National as typically as England’s Justin Rose.
“I feel like I’ve lived this before,” Rose stated of his 2025 playoff defeat to Rory McIlroy, recalling a surreal sense of déjà vu as he stood on the 18th inexperienced with a queasy ringside seat to an historic triumph, figuring out that the roles might so simply have been reversed.
It was his second playoff defeat and his third runner-up end at the Masters. He’s been shut sufficient to style it, shut sufficient to really feel his hand sliding into the sleeve of the iconic inexperienced jacket.
“I could see what it felt like,” he defined. “I can see the celebrations. It all played out right in front of me. So, I kind of lived it as if I’d have won it, but obviously without any of the real positive emotion that goes with that.”
Thanks to a quirk of Masters custom, Rose’s identify has been engraved onto the trophy thrice as the runner-up, however he’s by no means held it. It’s a sequence of outcomes that ranks him amongst the greats: Only Rose and Ben Hogan have misplaced a number of playoffs at Augusta with out ever profitable the event.
He has led or co-led the event after a spherical 11 instances all through his profession, behind solely Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, who gained 13 inexperienced jackets between them.
At the age of 45, Rose is enjoying in his twenty first Masters, and after enjoying two rounds this week, he advised NCS Sports that he isn’t feeling his age.
“I feel the same, which is good,” he stated from a podium simply exterior the clubhouse. “If I can feel the same, I’m doing a lot of other good things because I’m not feeling older. I feel in good form, I feel in good spirits.”
Nobody has had to play greater than 19 tournaments earlier than lastly profitable it, and Rose is approaching the age of the event’s oldest champion, 46-year-old Nicklaus. But he’s by no means given up, and this 12 months he’s again in the dialog once more with Friday’s three-under par spherical of 69 for a 5-under par event rating.
Rose has a resumé to be pleased with – a US Open title, an Olympic gold medal, he’s topped the world rankings and helped the European group to 5 Ryder Cup wins. But he advised the media at Augusta this week that he’s all the time taken a philosophical strategy to the recreation, and it has clearly helped him navigate a few of his largest skilled disappointments.
“I kind of realized that you can’t skip through a career without a little bit of heartache and heartbreak. No chance,” he stated. “If you’re going to be willing to win them, you’ve got to be willing to kind of be on the wrong side of it as well. The key is showing up. The point is you’ve got to put yourself there. That’s the hard part.”
It’s 28 years now since Rose flirted with victory as a 17-year-old beginner at the Open Championship in 1998 and his longevity since has been exceptional. In February, he destroyed the area by seven strokes to win the Farmers Insurance Open, and he’s completed second in two of his final 5 main tournaments.
A key to his success is the lens via which he regards the ones that acquired away. Instead of forming scar tissue, he says there may be solely a type of optimistic muscle reminiscence.
“I hope it only boosts my belief that I can go ahead and do it,” he stated, “I really feel like I’ve just about executed what it takes to win, I simply haven’t walked over the line. I gained’t ever assume, ‘Why me?’
“I’m very aware that I’ve been close here. I’m very aware that I’ve had tough, tough losses here. I also am aware that I enjoy this place. I come here with a good attitude; it’s a place I enjoy being. It’s a very enjoyable and comfortable place to be. I don’t feel like it owes me anything.”
One would possibly assume that a person who’s tried so many instances to win the Masters would have developed an obsession with it by now, however Rose is aware of that could possibly be the path to destruction at Augusta.
“I’d say I’m firmly in the desire camp,” he mused, “because I know (obsession) is not going to help me. It’s probably a professional discipline just to keep it in the desire realm.”
Rose’s good friend McIlroy was the one who pipped him to the inexperienced jacket final 12 months. If the first two rounds are any indication, Rose’s second would possibly want to wait one other 12 months.
Another blistering round from McIlroy afterward Friday afternoon means that Rose finds himself seven strokes behind the chief at the midway stage. No matter how effectively he performs at the weekend, second place is perhaps the greatest that he can hope for, once more.
