Justin Rose might have shot the lights out at The Memorial on day two but just a month or so on from his painful Masters loss to Rory McIlroy, the battle scars are still obvious.
Rose played magnificently on day two at The Memorial to put himself comfortably into the weekend.
However, while Rose is playing well and seemed to find something in his game today, he knows full well the main talking point of 2025 for him is that playoff defeat to McIlroy.
Rose won plenty of praise for how he handled himself in the aftermath of that loss.
But now, a few months on, Rose has admitted that it’s not been easy to recover from as he chases more wins and chances on the PGA Tour.
Justin Rose comments on his defeat to Rory McIlroy at The Masters
Rose was in the clubhouse at Muirfield Village after a stunning second round of 66 shot him into the top 20 after his nightmare opening day 78.
However, Rose was still fielding questions about his Masters loss to Rory McIlroy and admitted that the reality is that it’s been a tough pill to swallow.
“Not consciously. Quite possibly. I think definitely there is stuff to process there for sure, and I think obviously, a lot of people want to keep talking to you about it, so it’s hard to put it a hundred percent behind you all the time,” Rose admitted.
“I had two weeks off after Hilton Head and felt like I did a little bit of work, but not a ton of work, and I felt like there was a little bit of slippage in that period of time, yeah. So definitely felt like it took a week — well, it’s probably taking me a little bit of time just to really kind of find that form again, I suppose.
“I think traveling back and forth from England, and I’m — this year I definitely tried to change the way I’m approaching my weeks off at home, but I do kind of feel like it’s my weeks off that are the problem, not the playing. So yeah, it’s definitely a balance.”
Justin Rose says if he’s watched The Masters back yet
Like in any sport, one of the key learning points for a player is being able to look back over footage and take in what happened, while trying to learn as well.
For Rose, watching back a gut-wrenching four hours of Masters action where he knows he loses is going to be a hard watch. And he’s admitted that as of yet, he’s not watched it back.
“Yeah, I think selfishly they enjoyed it, because someone kind of was there to step up and have a good round and make it interesting. So I think from a watching point of view — which I haven’t had a chance to watch it back, apparently it was a good watch — I think people were just grateful that it was exciting in the end. I think that that’s what people kind of enjoyed,” Rose said when asked if he was proud of making the tournament exciting.
“Yeah, so from my point of view, yeah, I think I’ll look back at it always with where there were a couple of opportunities, but Rory gave me a huge opportunity as well. You know, there’s no way I should be in a playoff when he’s in the middle of the fairway on 18. I stepped up and hit great, hit the, hit every bit of good golf shots as I could hit in the moment. I think I learned a lot from 2017 when I was in a similar situation.
“So, yeah, from that point of view I can walk away from it a lot easier than if I had done something in the moment where I knew I had let myself down.”
With Rose now well into his 40s, many would argue he’s missed his best chance at winning at Augusta and adding another major.
But clearly, the game is still there for Rose and with the US Open to come, there’s a big chance he can get in contention again.
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