Justin Rose’s First Look at Royal Portrush | Open Championship Prep Begins

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Justin Rose gets his first look at Royal Portrush ahead of the 153rd Open Championship. With the Claret Jug on the line next week, Rose takes on a few holes on the Dunluce Links, testing his game in Open conditions.

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Hey, I’m Justin Rose and I’m preparing for the 2025 Open Championship here at Royal Port Rush. I like to take these little trips when the course is quiet, when there’s no other tour players here. More importantly, when there’s no crowd here because, you know, once the gates open on the Monday morning of the Championship week, it becomes pretty chaotic. Obviously, uh fans are very excited to see all the different players and obviously ask for autographs and, you know, get their little piece of the players when they are in a more relaxed frame of mind. That’s what I looked with that wind direction, wasn’t it? Like how to hone in on that bunker. I was just trying to hit a fairly normal one and just see what sort of happened. I didn’t really know what the hell was going to happen. Trying to hit a bit more of a lobe, like a proper hold here. It’s good to see a group of mates out playing together, isn’t it? You know, Friday evening, it’s cool. It’s good to see uh it’s a good drive as well. But yeah, good to see a bunch of, you know, reminds me of how I grew up, you know, just always out at the golf course till dusk till, you know, dawn till dusk. It’s a great way to spend your evening. Like I think if I hit anything clean, I’m going to struggle. Anything hit cleanly is going to struggle. It’s almost got to be hit just a smidgen on heavy on on the heavy side.
Hit it where he is. That’s it.
You got to get like at least 60 yards, I’d say. What club have you got? I’ve
got a 56. I just don’t think it comes out any higher.
Anything that cleans, it’s like the rule of with a wedge, everything launches at 28 when you hit them properly. I think I’ve got to just clip the bottom of the ball and on a hair heavy. That’s what my instinct says. Clean. Got no chance. Hair heavy. Just a smidge. Probably most my most important goal on Monday is to take a rest day after of competing the week before. So I really only have two days to prepare. So coming out here ahead of time really gives me that opportunity to see the course in a in an environment and in a state of mind where I think I’m very objective. I think when you kind of get to tournament week, you can be a little nervous. You can be a little amped up and you may be a little bit more stressed out. So, you’re maybe not seeing things quite as clearly. How long’s this old 332? Yeah, I’m going to play 10 yards of help at 15 mph and I’m just trimming that down bit more tight. Two yards tighter. Yeah, probably there. Thanks. for me, I can kind of um come and enjoy the spiritual nature, if you like, of these lovely evenings, late evenings, uh people enjoying their golf, people walking on the beach, all the things that make Port Rush special, you can kind of enjoy a couple of weeks prior to the championship because when you get here tournament week, you you’re pretty locked in, you’re focused, you keep a tight bubble, and um yeah, you try not to break that for the week. So, um but I think these little trips are important to get to know and love the place. Southwest, I’d say. Okay. Happy with that? Feels like it’s coming. Yeah. A bit more help. Yeah. So, lots of notes kind of today. Um, a lot of just getting used to the heavy wind conditions. You know, when you play a lot in America, you don’t really play in some very heavy gusty winds. And I think that’s what we’re facing today.
171. Where do you want to land this? As far as I can’t tell.
I’m going just try and land it on the front edge. Play for that pin. 62. Okay.
Is it up? It’s not up or down, is it? So, I think with the body and everything right now, it’s like a full nine iron. Um, we’re trying to sort of gauge what the forecast is and then what we’re feeling and then how that’s really impacting the golf ball. So, I’m just making notes on certain holes like on the par three back there, exactly what the nine iron flew and then, you know, what a 3/4 nine iron flew down that wind direction. So, I have a reference point really for this week. But actually what I’m doing today might also help me in the Scottish Open as well. 62 – 16 is 46 front. Is that right? Yeah. So obviously it’s really fun to not be here alone. You know I kind of come up with the boys the team. Um you know F my caddy is sort of integral that he’s here. I think there’s a lot of ground work that we can get done. You know lines off tease strategy. Um you know asking a lot of questions of people we meet. You know what’s the prevailing wind and all that type of stuff. So obviously we can the great thing about link force is that you can see it one day and it can be completely different the next. So although we’re assessing the conditions we’re feeling and seeing today we also need to understand like how it might play in different you know in a different scenario. So and then I got you know Paul McDonald agent and one of my best mates that I’ve known for many many many many years. Uh so it’s always fun to have him on board. And then Charlie my physio who’s here you know he’s so integral now in my swing and my mechanics. So it’s good to have a pair of eyes on me. The preparation is probably more enjoyable than the actual tournaments. You you get an opportunity to play and watch uh particularly Rosie play these courses, famous courses. You’re on your own. You got the courses to yourself and it’s it’s a remarkable it’s almost a spiritual experience. And uh being a golf mad person since I was about 8 years old, uh I live these days. All right. Yeah, no worries.
Thanks very much.
Don’t want to hold you up for any beers later. Do you know what I mean? All right. Cheers.
Cheers, guys. I mean, this preparation is very, very important. I wouldn’t say it’s vitally important because sometimes it doesn’t work out. You know, you can be here, you can be grafting, you can be putting all these hours in, but you know, you can’t guarantee a result. But, um, I think over time, if you keep preparing this way over the course of 20, 40, 50 major championships, it’s going to pay off for you. Uh, and I’ve seen it pay off for me. I think my overall I would say my performance in major championships outperforms my performance in regular tournaments certainly in the last sort of four or five years. So I do believe a lot of that is down to the preparation. That would be the question to me.
Well, I don’t know. It’s a birdie hole, man. But it it isn’t a 20 mph downwind. It just isn’t. So what’s So if you land it over that mound, you’re in trouble downwind.
You’re out of bounds,
right? So that’s that’s what you got to say to yourself. Where have I got what’s the shot I got going to hit to not fly it over that uh over that mound this here.
You cannot be right otherwise you’re heading it out here.
Yeah. But then actually knowing that accepting that it’s good though. 20 mph wind today. It’s really picked up nicely. We have the pin locations from 2019. Obviously, they’re only a guideline because I’m sure they’ll be slightly different in the coming, you know, 3 weeks time, but it gives us a little advantage just to prepare and just look at this place. It’s It’s playing tough. It’s playing exactly as Port Rush should play.
Cool. You lads all right?
Nice to meet you, Hi, mate.
All right. You lads looking forward to the open?
Yeah.
Yeah. Cool.
All right. Yeah. No worries. See you, boys.