AUGUSTA, Ga. – Coming off a back injury and four weeks without competition, Justin Rose didn’t know what to expect from his game. All the former World No. 1 knew is that he had been practicing hard and Augusta National is among his favorite places on the planet. Sean Foley, his swing instructor, concurred.
“He said, Buddy, I don’t know if you’re close or not, I just know you’re better,’ ” Rose recounted.
Was he ever. Rose overcame a sluggish start and played 9 under for a 10-hole stretch to shoot 7-under 65 and build a four-stroke lead over Hideki Matsuyama and Brian Harman after the first round of the 85th Masters. Playing in the afternoon when the wind kicked up, Rose beat his career-best in 58 previous rounds at Alister MacKenzie and Bobby Jones’s famed layout by two strokes.
It also marked the fourth time that the 40-year-old Englishman has held the lead after the opening round, tying Jack Nicklaus for the tournament record.
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“This place and him it’s just a love affair,” Foley said. “Inspiration is a powerful thing. We all have songs on our play list that realign us.”
So far, though it has been unrequited love. While the Golden Bear has converted those 18-hole leads into six green jackets, Rose, who played his first 13 Masters without missing a cut, has only known heartbreak, finishing second twice, behind Jordan Spieth in 2015 and a someone-has-to-lose playoff defeat at the hands of Sergio Garcia in 2017.
Rose made bogeys at the first and seventh hole and stood two over, but he never panicked. He drew a 5-wood for his second shot at the par-5 eighth that bounced off a mound and kicked to 10 feet. He rolled in the eagle putt and stuck a 9-iron tight at No. 9 to make the turn at 1 under. Rose shot a back-nine 30 that included canning a 25-foot putt at 10, an 8-iron to 6 feet at 12, a nifty wedge to 3 feet at 13, a greenside bunker shot to 3 feet at 15, a 20-foot birdie at 16 and a wedge to 4 feet at 17.
“Sounds easy when you just put it together like that,” he said.
The last time Rose competed he was forced to withdraw four holes into the third round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March due to back spasms and was a last-minute scratch from the Players Championship a week later. But Rose said his back is no longer an issue.
“It was a 7-day bit of a lockup and just struggled to be able to get down into the golf shot,” he explained.
Rose, who has slipped to No. 41 in the world, his lowest ranking in some 11 years, and hasn’t won since 2019, parted ways with Foley after a successful 11-year run in June. But the split proved to be short-lived. They reunited in October and are in the early stages of trying to get Rose back to the player who has 10 PGA Tour titles to his credit, an Olympic gold in 2016 and FedEx Cup champion in 2018.
“It’s very simple, it’s about keeping the face as square to the path for longer. Sometimes when I get my body of out of position, my clubface gets a little too active through impact,” Rose said. “He knows what works for me and my game.”
What began this week as low expectations have suddenly become realistic visions of another bid for a green jacket. How will Rose manage expectations going forward?
“That’s going to be the trick the rest of the week,” he said. “Hopefully you can just run off instinct a little bit. Obviously, I’ve competed in these big tournaments quite a few times, and I’ve got one of them to my name, but we’re looking for more.”