The pace of the course and some tricky pins is all the Old Course needs to keep the reins on the best players in the world, believes Justin Rose.
Rose maybe had the best debut ever at St Andrews – four birdies in his first five holes on the Old as a 16-year-old amateur. He took some early practice the week before the Scottish Open, and he thinks that speed of the course will be a strong defence.
‘It has its defences’
Scottish golf brings different challenges.
From The Renaissance Club, Justin Rose gets inside a pot bunker to demonstrate its challenges and escape methods.
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“I just think the Old Course has an amazing way of defending itself,” he said. “Just playing there in practice rounds, it makes you aware that angles are so important. The weather as well.
“It is very hard to get the ball three feet from the hole there, it really is. On a lovely day, you can play it feeling you are not going to make too many bogeys.
“But to get the ball in the hole is not that easy at St Andrews. The greens are subtle enough that making putts isn’t that easy, either, so it has its defences.
“I think it’s the speed that’s going to save it. This weather is going to brown it out. If they do put pins near the bunker edges where there is a little bit of tilt, 15-20 feet away is going to be a good shot a lot of the time.”
‘I went there to get inspired’
Justin Rose at the Open Championship at Royal Birkdale in 1998 and his proud parents – was that really 24 years ago! pic.twitter.com/G2751KmBnA
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He took some early practice to conserve energy levels for this week after playing in Ireland and the Scottish Open last week, but more than that.
“A reason I went there was to get inspired,” he said. “St Andrews is an amazing place that gets the juices flowing.
“It’s a golf course we all know well, but things change so much in different winds. You’ve to have really clear parameters on your lines off the tees.
“It was like refreshing your memory. Wind in off the left, on No 2 you can go as far left as that and as far right as that.
“It was a valuable couple of days. Going through all the Open placements we’ve had in the past, trying to imagine where new ones might be. Just putting some time into those little things.”
‘It would come full circle’
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For himself, at 42, he’s not given up on the chance that an Open win would properly bookend his outstanding career.
“I think it would be a nice kind of rounding off,” he said. “I sort of came to people’s attention that childhood performance in The Open at Birkdale ( in 1998). It would come full circle.
“I still feel I have a little more in the tank. That’s what I am fighting for at the moment, trying to get my game relevant enough where I can still contend in the major championships.
“My level was not where it needed to be a few years ago. There have been a lot of reasons for that. But I think I still can be and that’s what gives me hope.
“For me to win next week, a lot of things have to go right, but I still think it is possible.”
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