Justin Rose on elusive Open: ‘One I’ve dreamed about’

A two-time runner-up at The Open Championship, Justin Rose finished second at the Masters for the third time in his career with a playoff loss to Rory McIlroy in April.
Instead of dwelling on another near miss at a major, Rose is ready to chase the title that means the most to him as an Englishman this week at the 153rd Open at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland.
“I’m ready to move on for sure because second is second place, isn’t it?” he said Wednesday about his result at Augusta. “It’s a tough loss. But at the same time, it’s still more evidence that when I get things right, I’m still competitive and can still bring it. That’s where I’m encouraged about, and obviously I’ve got to make sure those moments like this week and going forward I can try to be as focused as I can on the moment now.”
Rose, 44, has a long relationship with the Open, starting when he reached final qualifying as a 14-year-old to his breakthrough fourth-place showing at Royal Birkdale as an 18-year-old amateur in 1998.
“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,” he said. “Obviously as a kid, on the putting green since I’ve been playing the game since probably age 8, 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, obviously. I’ve been close a couple times, but it’s an incredible tournament, like I said. As a British player, it’s been the one that I’ve dreamed about winning and holed the putt many times in my mind.”
Rose tied for second behind Xander Schauffele at last year’s Open at Royal Troon in Scotland.
Rose, ranked No. 21 in the world, is coming off a sixth-place finish at the Genesis Scottish Open, thanks to a final round 63 Sunday. After his close call against McIlroy at the Masters, he missed the cuts at the PGA Championship and U.S. Open.
Earlier this week, McIlroy said if he can’t win this week on home soil in Northern Ireland that he wants Rose to lift the Claret Jug.
Although disappointed by the result, Rose was happy for McIlroy to complete his career grand slam at Augusta.
“When you lose (like) that, you can kind of walk out with your head held high and give your competitor a lot of props for that type of situation,” said Rose, whose lone major win came at the 2013 U.S. Open.
“But obviously you’ve got to look inward and understand how is there anything I could have done better in the moment? But really I hit two great shots into 18 myself, and the outcome was what it was.”