Sitting pretty

FROM the boy who captured the heart of the nation in 1998 at Birkdale, Justin Rose has become a man of the world.

And yet, nine years on from those Open heroics, that fourth-place finish remains his best in a Major, while a victory on the PGA Tour that he has called home for the past three years remains elusive. Those are the bare golfing statistics but they do not even come close to representing the life of Rose over the past decade.

Following Birkdale, there was the immediate conversion to the professional ranks aged just 17. Then the nightmare run of over 20 consecutI've missed cuts played out amid a maelstrom of criticism and well-meaning advice that comes when you are propelled into the stardom at such a young age and therefore regarded as public property.

After that came growing maturity, and the wins, on the European Tour at least, began to arrive. Then the darkest days yet, as his father, Ken, lost a long battle against Leukaemia and Rose simultaneously lost his dad, mentor and best friend.

By comparison, the gradual disintegration and rebuilding of his golf game was trivial, but, make no mistake, Rose has cut a dispirited figure at times during the past five years. He was forced to sit and watch while his peers and countrymen, the likes of Paul Casey, Luke Donald, Ian Poulter and David Howell, helped Europe to thump America in two Ryder Cups.

It was at the beginning of 2005 that the 26-year-old decided to base himself full-time in America. The logic was sound: his coach, David Leadbetter, lived and worked in Florida and Rose felt his time with him was limited to literally flying visits.

It was a good plan but the results were still not satisfactory. Rose sets his standards high, as he explained back in 2005 after missing out on places in that years Open and USPGA.

"I was hanging round before both championships like an idiot, feeling like a spare part, he said. That really, really was the last straw for me. I said right, I'm making a change. Whatever I've got to do. This is not who I am and this is not where I want to be."

And so came a change of coach and a termination to a long-term relationship with Leadbetter made all the more difficult because the two were and are friends. Rose felt his swing thoughts had become overly technical and so started working with Nick Bradley, whose approach is more feel-based.

And the results have justified the change. So much so that Rose is now in the top 50 of the world rankings, and therefore has the luxury of being able to play in whichever events he chooses and create a schedule based around the Majors.

As recently as Hoylake last year, Rose was not exempt and failed to qualify. But he will arrive at Carnoustie as a genuine contender.

"I like to try to peak for events and to prepare mentally and to have time to get ready," he said. "So therefore I take a week off before a Major, go to the course and really get to know it. Rather than go to Augusta on Saturday before the tournament I like to go on the Monday the week before and practise specific shots. It's means you don't have such a long tournament week.

"I know I'm every bit good enough to be winning these tournaments. I've got to go out and perform but I've got every confidence I'm going to do that. The Open is without doubt the one I'd most love to win. I've had great experiences, of course. When I was 14 I got to the final stages of the qualifying.

"Then what happened when I was 17 will never be surpassed unless I win the tournament. Even at Muirfield (in 2002) I played with Tiger for the first two days and I was in the second-to-last group on Sunday. The way I played I could have won that week.

"It was such a weird tournament. I mean, six under won it and I finished two under and felt I left so many shots out on the course. It's good to have these experiences and The Open is the one I've had the taste of. Although I've led the Masters and finished fifth in the US Open too so I feel like there a lot of positives for me in the Majors to believe I can go on and win one of them if not all four of them."

And now, for the first time, he is able to prepare in the most thorough way, knowing his place in the field is guaranteed.

"I think playing other links golf thats relatively similar is good preparation. You can get bored playing the same course or at least stale is probably a better way of putting it and you need that freshness and excitement. But then there are so many different ways a links course can play depending on which way the wind blows that the more practice rounds you can get in, in
a sense, the better.

"I think a good way of doing it is to go the venue a couple of months before if you can and maybe playing a couple of rounds and then going back the week before to play another round or two as well as taking in another couple of links courses in the area.

"Then on Tuesday start your normal preparation. I think it's very important to keep your normal routine once the week has started," he said.

This philosophy means that British fans will not get a chance to see Rose in action at Loch Lomond the week before The Open.

"It's such a shame because Loch Lomond is such a fantastic place and it's one of my favourite courses and it's a brilliant tournament that Barclays put on. No doubt about it. It's a big tournament to win both in terms of the European Tour and in
world terms. It's just not great preparation for the following week.

"If you can have done your preparation before, then you can play Loch Lomond and still be prepared for the week after. It's pretty much target golf there wide fairways, soft greens. It's like an American-style tournament. It's a great venue and a big tournament to win full stop. But if I felt I had a great chance to win the Open Championship Id want to focus on that and therefore get my links game going."

This, says Rose, is a subtle process. It is not a complete reinvention of technique but just adding a little more variety to his shotmaking abilities for when the situation calls for it.

"The Americans seem to play fantastically here without adapting their games all that much. Tiger will. The very top players will adapt their game. Just in adding a few shots. A punch shot, a chip shot, just a couple of shots they feel are really going to benefit them that week.

"It isn't the case that you hit every shot in low, you don't punch every shot. I think 90 per cent of the field play their same game that they do every other week. What you have got to learn is how to club yourself in the wind and to be able to learn to hit seven iron from 220 because you're only trying to land the ball at 190 and theres 20mph of wind.

"To be able to have that experience really helps. But you don't have to change your ball flight unless the wind is really
extreme. If It's a 20mph wind or less you can get away with it but when it gets really extreme thats when I think the really good players will come to the front because that's when you need to be able to control your ball flight that much more.

"Things like this can make the difference, so it is little surprise some of Rose's friends in America without his links experience have been picking his brain. A lot of the younger guys like Zach Johnson and Ben Crane have asked me what I thought the best preparation would be and how early to go over and which courses to play in practice and I've given them my thoughts on it."

This shows the esteem in which Rose is held, but what the likes of Johnson and Crane have that he doesn't is a win on the PGA Tour or in Johnson's case a Major.

Until this changes, it would seem premature to regard Rose as a genuine threat in one of the Big Four. But then again, 17-year-old amateurs are not supposed to come within a couple of shots of winning The Open. Maybe Rose has another spectacular surprise for the golfing world. And maybe Carnoustie will be where it happens. Watch this space.