Justin Rose spoke to the media in advance of the Sony Open in Hawaii, and event he hasn’t played since 2017.
Yeah really good to be back I mean I’ve always enjoyed this golf course um I kind of feel like it offers um you know even though the scoring is low here it offers a good test you know especially early in the season um you know depending you know all these golf
Courses are very weather dependent but if you get a good sort of strong Breeze there’s typically a lot of Crosswinds you have to keep the ball in play so yeah I’ve always felt like it’s it’s been a good like Benchmark uh early in the season and but also if your game
Sharp it offers you a good opportunity to to get out there and get on the leaderboard and feel like you uh you know this is the kind of golf course I feel it fits my game when I’m playing well yeah I mean uh yeah kapoo is obviously just uh you know very unique
Golf course from that point of view it’s uh it’s a course where you you know you know you have to go low but it doesn’t always appear to be that easy or feel that easy um you know greens are tough to read uh tons of slope out there
Obviously and yet people continue to go low so I mean obviously for me the week hadn’t gone particularly to plan at all so it was nice to sort of finish low on Sunday and and get get something special going and it was a kind of round where
I knew something good was happening and what I really enjoyed about it is I kind of stayed out of my own way that day you know like sometimes you know you go really low you think about going really low whereas I think on Sunday in the tournament that kind of
Helps you stay loose but um the three ball that I was in was unbelievable as well we were 30 under par between three of us that must be a record tour record I’d imagine uh 12 10 and 8 was was our was our group so um yeah it was a cool
Cool day first time i’ played actually with ludvig as well um so that was nice um yeah uh I think I can bring a little bit of that my form feels good I’ve been working hard I haven’t had much of an offseason I played quite late into the
To the into December playing hero and gr Thornton so that was by Design I kind of felt like I’m game’s getting to where I want it and didn’t want to lay off for too long I mean I can’t remember that’s a long time ago nobody want your rookie
Season no one wants my rookie season yeah you’re just trying to make your first cut and you know like get that get that monkey off the back um no I think um obviously there’s tons of excitement right um and I think this is sort of a
Really unique way to start the year you know you’re all the way out in Hawaii which feels very different you know it’s kind of this these two events have like their own personality so I just think it’s kind of a great way to sort of easy
Way into it um although the travels not over are not overly easy but uh you know the Field’s quite strong this week I think there’s quite a few guys that haven’t got into the tournament that would have expected to have got into the tournament and been able to get their
Season up and running so um I think the season’s become more Cutthroat this year given you know the the elevated event and given the fact that you’re not some guys are not able to get into as many events as they they maybe once were Etc um so I do feel like there’s
A a big emphasis on getting off to a good start that always helps so I think that um you know as laid-back and as easy going as it feels like Hawaii is I think um you know there’s no time to lose for you know whether it be a rookie
Or anybody else in the field I think I think uh you know I think everyone’s probably pretty Keen to get off to a good start and with that you know comes some some anticipation and with that probably comes a little bit of nerves you know getting the season up and
Running yeah I mean listen you certainly have an advantage just in terms of the stature of the events and the quality of fields that you’re able to play against now is that easier is the Catch 22 and I think this is obviously what we’re all exactly trying to figure out how you
Give everybody that perfectly Fair sort of EB and flow in terms of stronger Fields equals more points which I think they absolutely should have because quite clearly a 10th in a strong event is better than a 10th in a in a weak field event so how you distribute those
Points is obviously a a been a a topic of discussion so I think it was going to take maybe it’s going to take half a year which is too long to figure out if it’s right or wrong um or you know how close we’ve gotten to it um but
Absolutely I think that you know you have the the ability to play for elevated points and I think if your game is if you you know if you’re playing well enough to compete in those events absolutely it’s the way forward and that’s the that’s what we’re all
Striving for out here on tourist to be in these big events so we can have that opportunity to to amass as many points as possible there’s probably a lot to figure out this year I would think I mean we we talk about the number of guys who didn’t get in who normally
Would yeah there’s different Dynamics at play for sure and I think it’s very hard to get everything right on year one I mean you look at the FedEx Cup it’s taken us many many little iterations to find out if it’s perfect or what needs tweaking so I’m sure this is a similar
Type of situation but you know frustrating for a lot of guys because there will always be one or two guys that it makes a a significant difference to their their career and livelihood so you know it’s important stuff to get right but uh and it’s obviously we don’t
Make you know when I say we the PO at B don’t make these decisions lightly it is done with the best of intentions to try to make it you know correct across the whole tour membership but hard to keep 200 guys happy for sure yeah it’s going
To be a tough team to make obviously we all know Team USA is a really really difficult team to make but the way I’m trying to look at it is that um I’ve got to try and play my way into the top 15 in the world rankings you know I think a
Team can still field up to four players inside that top 15 so I don’t see Fitz tyell or Tommy necessarily going backwards this year so you know for me it’s a it’s up to me to play my way into that top 15 that’s a massive goal for
Sure uh you know Tokyo was a tough one because when we should have played in 2020 I was actually in the team and then obviously by 2021 by the time we actually were able to play I’d slipped out so yeah it was uh you know listen Olympics has been something special for
Me quite clearly I I walked around for four or five years with that tagline and uh you know the fans identify a lot with that with me so to have the opportunity to go back would be unbelievable um Paris is a golf course I love and know
And you know yeah I feel like I can still challenge obviously for for another one so but you got to be in it to win it you know so yeah first first and foremost a lot of hard work for me to to be able to make the team what I
Did notice about the US Open was you know you you win one and obviously you’re forever a major Champion you’re forever US Open Champion you know and obviously the golf fan remembers that but you know in two in 3 weeks time there’s a open Champion you know so it’s
Quickly forgotten like you’re on to the next Champion whereas the Olympics did resonate for a long long time uh I think I you know my playing Partners probably didn’t enjoy four years of on the first te Olympic champion Justin Rose okay give it a rest
And I you know I didn’t ask for it but I even by the end of it I was tired of it to be honest with you but um you know I shouldn’t have been but um I that that’s the biggest thing about the Olympics for me is I was surprised
How much it resonated with the golf fan because quite clearly back in 2016 some of the top players didn’t really get on board with the meaning you know how meaningful of an achievement it is and I think if the fan begins to to identify with it then it becomes
Important to the players as well like and obviously now we’re a couple additions in there’s a bit of history there obviously Xander’s you know a great winner as well um and obviously we have a couple great venues I think you know Paris and you know La Rivier
Especially so you know it really should go from strength to strength and obviously that’s what I hope for it that it does become you know something that’s sought after in our game
