AUGUSTA, GEORGIA | It was three minutes past 2 o’clock when Justin Rose drove off from the first hole for the fourth and last time in the 90th Masters. Perhaps 15 minutes later a delicate chip of his from off the edge of the green sped towards its target.
“Get in, get in, get in, YES!” roared English voices as it disappeared out of sight. Rose raised his right hand in acknowledgement. Could his birdie start to his 78th round at Augusta National have gone any better?
Sentimental voices wanted “Rosie” to win the Masters, having been denied victory in a playoff last year and in 2017. Even a final round of 66 that included 10 birdies was not good enough 12 months ago to beat Rory McIlroy and for the third time he finished second, the second time in a playoff.
Rose, 45, had won the 2013 U.S. Open, the gold medal at the 2016 Olympics and was a favourite with Masters patrons. “For sentimental reasons I’d like Rosie to win,” Paul McGinley said on television during the week. “He deserves it.”
“I am excited to be here,” Rose said on arrival. “I feel like I have clearly found my game, I’ve played very well [this year]. It’s my 21st time but it always feels like your first. You just arrive here and take a deep breath. It’s always special. It never gets complacent. That’s for me the magic. I am comfortable here but never complacent here.”
Among the patrons who trailed Rose and Jason Day on Sunday were a straw-hatted Kate Rose, Justin’s wife, and Guy Kinnings, chief executive of the DP World Tour. Halfway down the side of the second fairway Annie Rose, Justin’s mother, stood quietly watching proceedings around the green. She was wearing an ankle-length dress and a straw hat on her head. “Those are odd chips,” she said when both Justin’s and Jason Day’s shots to the second green drew little applause.
After 74 rounds prior to this year, Rose’s strategy was well thought out. “Basically I’m going to go through breaking the course down. There will be one spot to land the ball on pretty much every green and for every pin. That’s going to be the right shot to hit. It’s going to give you a chance to make birdie but it’s also going to be playing the percentages, playing the odds. You’re not going to hit every shot tight. There’s a way to play … every hole and every shot and if you get it right you’ll get your chances.”
Rose had his chances and took them so that after the eighth, when he had his fourth birdie of the day, and when he birdied the ninth he led by two strokes. He had got to 12 under and those supporters of the Englishman were daring to think again. He had finished in the top 10 seven times. He had made 18 cuts out of 21. Was this to be his year? Could Rosie win his first Masters at 45?
St Andrews is the most historic venue in golf and the Old Course the most famous. Royal Portrush may be the best combination of beauty and difficulty on the Open rota. Augusta National presents rare twin challenges: it is both physically demanding, with constant elevation changes, and mentally taxing. If one doesn’t get you, the other will.
Was one or both of these factors behind Rose’s play starting at the 11th when a wild second shot was pushed to the right of the green and he bogeyed the hole? No longer in sole possession of the lead, Rose needed to settle but he overhit his tee shot on the 12th, leading to another bogey, and then having hit a brave iron at the flag on the 13th, risking his ball rolling into the creek, he three-putted for a par.
“The mentality was to run through the finish line, not just try and get it done. I was playing great but the momentum shifted for me around Amen Corner.”
Justin Rose
Early in the week he had spoken of what he had learned in his previous 20 appearances. “There was a tendency early in my career to try to be perfect for Thursday,” he said. “Yeah, you need to be ready but you kind of need to save your gas for Sunday as well. You’ve got to finish strong. If you start great you still need to finish strong, be able to finish it off. “
He wasn’t able to finish it off, to finish strong. Having gone out in 32 he struggled home in 38. A drive on the 17th soared high and right and he bent down in frustration. Moments later he missed a short putt.
Fatigue had got to Rose, who is halfway through his fifth decade while the men around him were years younger. He tied for third with Tyrrell Hatton, his Ryder Cup teammate, Russell Henley and Cameron Young.
The walk up the 18th fairway was heartwarming not because he was the champion, because he wasn’t. It was because the patrons recognised a good man, a good golfer who conducted himself with dignity and played with rare skill and steadiness. There was only one stroke difference between each of his rounds, 70, 69, 69, 70.
“I think people know I play hard and try hard,” Rose said. “I’ve been close. I guess they appreciate my efforts. For the first 10 holes I felt I was in control. The mentality was to run through the finish line, not just try and get it done. I was playing great but the momentum shifted for me around Amen Corner.”
Rose, a man with the name of a flower, was being lauded for the way he had played over what was once a flower nursery. He had the name for this course but on this course, and only by a fine margin, he didn’t have the game.
Top: Justin Rose reacts after missing a birdie putt on the 16th hole.
Kieran Cleeves, Augusta National