Near-misses fuelling Justin Rose in hunt for long-awaited Open glory

Justin Rose wants to use last season’s Open Championship near-miss as fuel as he looks for a victory at the Major where it all started for him.

It is nearly 27 years since he famously holed out on the last at Royal Birkdale to finish in a tie for fourth and secure Low Amateur honours just days after his 18th birthday.

What is almost as famous is his start in the paid ranks, which saw him miss his first 21 cuts, although that is a far cry from the career he has gone on to assemble.

A World Number One, a number one on both sides of the Atlantic, a Major winner, an Olympic Gold Medallist and a Ryder Cup winning stalwart, the list of achievements on Rose’s CV is the envy of the vast bulk of of those to have ever played the game.

But the Englishman, who turns 45 at the end of this month, admits his desire to win his home Major burns as bright as ever and he strongly believes he can after last year’s runner–up finish.

“I guess I've had a pretty long relationship with The Open Championship,” he said. “Obviously Birkdale 98 but I'd say even before that. I got to Final Qualifying as a 14-year-old in 1995 for The Open at St Andrews and from that moment on... I felt like that created a bit of a media stir at the time.

“That kind of got the juices flowing about playing in The Open and what it means to play in The Open and obviously I've been dreaming about winning it way before then even. As a kid, on the putting green since I've been playing the game since probably age eight, I've been dreaming about winning The Open, of course.

“But it began to feel real from like 1995, and 1998 obviously was a fairy tale kind of story and ending to my amateur career and really the next place from there was to go ahead and try to win it.

As a British player, it's been the one that I've dreamed about winning and holed the putt many times in my mind

“I've been close a couple of times but it's an incredible tournament. As a British player, it's been the one that I've dreamed about winning and holed the putt many times in my mind.”

He added: “If I look back at Troon, I think I played as good a golf as anybody for the whole entire week. I think I probably played through some of the tougher conditions in terms of Saturday afternoon which was brutal. I got the worst of it there. I really felt I hung in, so it was good resilience I felt like I showed that week.

“I felt like I went out and I shot the second lowest score of the day on Sunday. Obviously I got beaten by Xander who played an amazing round of golf and we were kind of toe-to-toe right through the round until he had a golden half an hour where he stretched away and that was it.

“When you step up as a competitor, you're like, ‘yeah, I had everything available to me to win the tournament’. That does kind of keep you believing, you know what I mean, and obviously that gives me a lot of hope coming back into this week and future Opens as well.”

Having played on the last European Ryder Cup team and with runner-up finishes in two of the last four Majors, Rose shows no sign of slipping from the elite bracket in his fifth decade.

And while he feels he can still become a multiple Major Champion, Rose admits the near-misses are becoming harder to take.

“Later in your career you're never quite sure how many chances are going to be left and when you do come close, clearly it's like, ‘ahh’. Sometimes it hurts a little bit more possibly because you know that it's not getting any easier, to put it that way.

"I would say overall, week in and week out, it's going to be hard to get a ton better and transform my game to suddenly add new dimensions to it where I can kind of become incredibly dominant over the top young players.

“But I think in certain situations and in certain environments, I can still kind of bring my best and when I do do that I feel very, very competitive.

"But yeah, I think you kind of want to make the most of these near misses at this stage of your career.”