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:: JUSTIN AND ADIDAS GET INTO THE SPIRIT OF WORLD CUP
See how 2010 Memorial Tournament Champion Justin Rose gets his kicks... Click here
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Putting isn't the only thing Tour Pro Justin Rose can do on the greens... Click here
:: MAIDEN US VICTORY FOR ROSE, SUNDAY 6 JUNE (EUROPEANTOUR.COM)
England's Justin Rose finally broke his US PGA Tour duck with arguably the finest round of his life at The Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village.
Playing the 162nd event of his US PGA Tour career, Rose came from four behind Rickie Fowler to triumph by three with a magnificent closing six under par 66, the low round of the day, and an 18 under par total.
It makes the 29 year old the third European to win in the States this season after his close friend and Ryder Cup partner Ian Poulter's success at the the World Golf Championships - Accenture Match Play and then Rory McIlroy's stunning Quail Hollow Championship victory.
"I couldn't wish for a better place - it's an honour," Rose told tournament host Jack Nicklaus after holing the winning putt.
"I have had a few close calls and sometimes you wonder why you can't get it done. But when you do it feels easy.
"It's nice to have the hard work pay off."
Rose made his first birdie on the fifth and then had three in a row from the seventh to turn in 32.
He was still behind at that point, but 21 year old Fowler, also chasing his maiden win, bogeyed the tenth and then went in the water on the short 12th for a double bogey five.
Rose took control with further birdies on the 14th and 16th, but Fowler put the pressure back on by picking up shots at the 14th and 15th.
However, the youngster left a bunker shot in the sand on the short 16th to drop another shot and could find no way back with Rose rock solid.
The former European Tour number one's first US PGA Tour event was, of course, The Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in 1998 when he finished a spectacular fourth as a 17 year old amateur.
This could have the spin-off effect of qualifying him for St Andrews next month off a current form money list running in America, but first comes the US Open Championship and a 36 hole qualifier close to Muirfield Village.
Rose, 66th in the world, will move just outside the top 30 and from 27th to eighth on The European Ryder Cup World Points List.
The first four places in Colin Montgomerie's side will come from that list, with the next five automatic spots decided by European Tour earnings.
Rose goes just ahead of 2007 team-mate Graeme McDowell, who won The Celtic Manor Wales Open.
Bo Van Pelt and Ricky Barnes were three shots further back in a tie for third, with Phil Mickelson, who would have taken over from Tiger Woods as World Number One for the first time by winning, joint fifth.
Woods finished 19th, while McIlroy's one-under 71 left him tenth with Jim Furyk.
:: JustIN ROSE FINALLY BLOOMS IN UNITED STATES, tIMES ONLINE ARTICLE BY PETER DIXON
Justin Rose put a season of disappointment behind him with his first victory on American soil at the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village, Dublin, Ohio last night.
Rose, four strokes behind Rickie Fowler overnight, put in the performance of the day with a round of 66 to beat the young American by three strokes and lift one of the most coveted trophies in world golf, in the event founded by Jack Nicklaus.
In so doing, Europe’s former No 1 became the second Englishman, after Ian Poulter, to taste success on the PGA Tour this year. It brought a prize of just over $1 million (about £693,000), automatic playing rights on the US Tour for the next two years and, more importantly, will see him climb into the world’s top 50 when the rankings are announced today.
To say the English contingent, with four players in the world’s top ten, are spurring each other on would be an understatement. In recent weeks, there have been victories in Europe for Simon Khan and Luke Donald, while in the United States there have been strong showings from Lee Westwood, who came second to Phil Mickelson at the Masters, Paul Casey, who was beaten by Poulter in the final of the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship, and Brian Davis, who has twice finished as a runner-up.
What a difference a few weeks makes. On his return to Europe for the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth a few weeks ago, Rose was a picture of despondency. He felt his game was coming together but seemed unable to find four good rounds, having secured only two top-ten finishes in 12 PGA Tour events. “The form is good, but results-wise it’s not special,” he said. “But I’m sure it’s just around the corner.” And so it proved last night.
Rose led after the first day with an opening round of 65 and followed up with scores of 69 and 70 that kept him near the top of the leaderboard but requiring something special on the final day. For once, his experience came to the fore as Fowler, 21, dressed from top to toe in orange and playing only his nineteenth event on tour, made a few key errors.
Out in 32, Rose had four birdies in five holes from the 5th and seized the initiative. Sharing the lead on 16 under, Fowler fell two behind after finding water at the par-three 12th and was never to get back in touch. He had a round of 73 that betrayed his inexperience. Rose added further birdies at the 14th and 16th and simply protected his lead coming home.
His joyous celebration said it all. And to have Nicklaus there to congratulate him must have made it all the more special. “I’ve had a few close calls and you start to wonder why you cannot get it done,” Rose said. “It’s amazing but it felt somewhat easy. I was completely in control of my emotions and am delighted.”
:: PGA TOUR INTERVIEW WITH JUSTIN ROSE BY DOUG MILNE
DOUG MILNE: We'll go ahead and get started. Justin Rose, great playing today. Started off with a bogey but obviously rallied back with eight birdies. You're 7-under, 65 today. A few comments on the state of your game. You've obviously got to be feeling good about where it is right now, especially after a round like today.
JUSTIN ROSE: For sure. Funny thing is I played at Colonial last week, made the cut, finished close to last, but came away from the week feeling really good about things, which is, I guess, a rare state of mind for me. I often tend to be into results too much, you know what I mean.
Last week for the first time in a while, I feel like I'm not just trying to get results week to week. I feel like I'm trying to get better and getter as I go forward. Today was probably possible because of how I reacted to last week.
I bogeyed the first. Again, didn't affect me. Just kept playing away. Then a few putts start dropping, and you find your rhythm out there.
I feel like I've been comfortable with my game for a number of weeks, and I'm not really trying to do anything different day to day right now.
DOUG MILNE: How about the tournament here in general? I think this is your fifth or sixth start. You've had some solid finishes. I think you finished second or fourth.
JUSTIN ROSE: Both, yeah.
DOUG MILNE: So obviously the course suits your game.
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I've had good weeks here in the past. It's a tournament that I feel like I should have won for sure. I always feel comfortable when I do get here.
The golf course -- you always hear guys saying the course fits my eye. It certainly does. I like all the tee shots, and the greens are so pure here that, if you do get a putting stroke going, you're going to make some putts.
It's a bit of a pun, but I putted scary good with my new ghost putter. I couldn't resist that one.
I think also I focus more on my speed around here. I do a lot of putting on the putting green, really are working on my pace, more so than other weeks. Also in Augusta, I do something similar, and I tend to putt well on these types of greens.
Q. I'm resisting the urge to ask if you got that putter from Boo Weekley. What got you back? You say you're comfortable with your game. What got you back on this path of being comfortable?
JUSTIN ROSE: You know, I think just the fact that I'm not trying to make changes day to day. I'm not trying to search for anything right now. People say what are you working on? Because the results don't look fantastic. But the fact is sometimes what you're doing behind the scenes is more important than the results.
Obviously, ultimately, I need to show up. But right now I'm not too focused on the results. I'm really just trying to build a good career going forward rather than stress about every single week individually.
I think that's probably what -- today was just a sign of that, and that's got to be my mindset going forward really. It doesn't change tomorrow just because I have a good round today. It probably shouldn't change the rest of your career, if it's possible.
It sounds pretty simple, but it's not an easy mindset to stay on.
Q. How long has that putter been in the bag?
JUSTIN ROSE: I put it in play at Wentworth and finished tenth there. Took it out of play last week, which probably wasn't the smartest thing. And put it back into play this week.
Q. Why did you take it out of play after finishing tenth at Wentworth?
JUSTIN ROSE: Actually, the putting is the one area that I have been doing a little bit of experimentation with. The rest of my game, my mental game, golf game, I feel really good with. Putting is a game within the game, and that's the one area I've been trying to kick start a little bit.
You know, I was probably getting somewhere, and then I realized that I was getting a little greedy, maybe last week trying to change, trying to do something different. It didn't pan out for me. Back to what I know best this week.
That's a good example, you know, trust what you got. That's kind of what I'm trying to say right now. It's time for me to trust what I got, not try to change too much, and just think better. It's all about confidence really.
Q. Did someone advise or suggest to you to focus on the big picture and not stress over the smaller picture?
JUSTIN ROSE: You know, it's something I've known for a long time. I think intuitively you know that's the way you should play. It's just sometimes having the discipline to do it.
But I think I'm at a point, maybe pushing 30, maybe maturing a little bit. Who knows? It could be a lot of things. But great family life right now, very happy off the golf course. So maybe I'm just getting to a good place with everything really.
Q. What is it about Muirfield Village that seems to fit you well? You mentioned out there that the golf course -- you really like the golf course. You've had the two Top 5 finishes or whatever it was. What is it about this place?
JUSTIN ROSE: I like the fact you can be fairly aggressive off the tee. You can drive it quite a bit. The fairways aren't too narrow. It's really a second shot golf course. If you hit good iron shots, the way the greens are designed a little bit like Augusta, if you hit the correct shot, catch the correct slope, it does feed close to the flagstick.
I think it's a course you've got to play really smart on, which obviously the man who designed it was one of the best at that. I think it's a really fitting golf course in terms of Jack designing it.
I actually tend to play well on Nicklaus-designed golf courses, actually generally, it feels like. And I tend to putt well here.
I think, at the end of the day, any time you putt well, you're going to make birdies and shoot a pretty good score.
Q. Justin, the rain obviously last night softened the course, to say the least. Did it leave it there for the taking, or were there some mud balls out there that sort of evened things up?
JUSTIN ROSE: There were certainly some mud balls out there. I had one on the 1st hole. You could hardly see the ball there was so much mud. I got away with it, on the right edge of the green, two putted. But it's actually drying up really quickly right now.
Coming down 9, the ball wasn't picking up mud. Sometimes it's a funny thing. As it begins to dry up, the mud gets stickier and sticks to the ball, and you get worse mud balls. Sometimes when it's just rain there's mud on your ball, but as soon as you hit it, the mud comes off.
A lot of elevated tees out there too where the ball is coming in quite high. So, yes, it is picking up mud, but it wasn't horrendous out there.
Wind's just beginning to pick up a little bit, which could make it tricky this afternoon, especially if the old mud ball comes into play. But we had very flat conditions this morning.
Q. And you said your putting was "scary good." Was it long range putts or just you made everything you should have made?
JUSTIN ROSE: No, actually, I made a lot more -- it felt like I made a lot more midrange putts than I've made for a long time. 15 to 20 feet, that's the range.
I feel like I putt well from four to six feet. And I've made my fair share of long ones, at least that's my perception. Today probably, in terms of the footage of putts I've made today, that was probably my best round of the year. I would be surprised if it isn't.
Q. I think -- I know two years ago you shot 68 first round. It seems to me that you've been in here more than that after the first round in this tournament. And I just wondered if there's anything, just like you said, you just like getting here and playing?
JUSTIN ROSE: I finished second and fourth here. Second in '08 and fourth in, I think, maybe '04, '05. I forget when that was, when I was just a wee boy.
Yeah, I've challenged all week before here and had my share of low rounds. But it's not -- I have in a few tournaments. But, yeah, for all the reasons I mentioned really, I just like the golf course.
Q. Did you have to -- with what Andrew said, with respect to the rain last night, did you have to change the way you played at all today compared to the practice rounds or adjust your game in any way?
JUSTIN ROSE: The course has been soft all week. I think it rained right before we got here, didn't it? Sunday we had a little rain. It has been soft all week.
It did soften up to the point where it was a little squishy, not 100% comfortable out there, but I think it's been very much hard to golf week all week.
Q. Were you outdoors last night and saw that storm coming? Did you watch it at all and get in a panic?
JUSTIN ROSE: Actually, I was inside. Just hearing the sirens going off and that type of stuff. I didn't see how big. It was something like a thousand lightning strikes within not very long at all. Must have been pretty impressive to watch.
Q. Got pretty dark, too.
JUSTIN ROSE: My little boy, we put him down about 7:30. It's been so light, he's having a hard time sleeping. Last night, we were like, hey, it's dark around 7:00. This is perfect. So my little guy got to sleep then.
Q. He's going to bed at 7:30. When's he getting up?
JUSTIN ROSE: About 7:00. He's well trained. Or at least we close the door and only come in at 7:00. I don't know. Just kidding.
