You might have thought it was a downcast Justin Rose who began the 2009 season on the back of finishing 81st in the European Order of Merit last year. The ranking is lowly enough for a man with such calibre, but to follow 2007 in which the Englishman finished first, is not too short of disastrous.
True, there was the highlight of making his first European Ryder Cup team, and a satisfactory personal performance in which he recorded three wins out of four, but even this was ultimately in a losing cause.
Yet it was a positive, mature Rose that greeted you after finishing a close second behind Northern Ireland’s Rory McIllroy in the Dubai Desert Classic, a result that puts him in good heart for next week’s WGC-Accenture World Matchplay Championships at Dove Mountain, Arizona. It is a tournament he hopes to fare well in, especially given his match play credentials, and his new found optimism.
Rose is very happy to see the back of 2008, aware of what he did right the year before, and what he did wrong last time, and full of the joys of life with impending fatherhood just a few weeks away.
For any first-time parent the prospect of a baby puts life into perspective but for Rose, who lost his father, Ken, to cancer six years’ ago when he was just 57 years’ old, after a lifetime of friendship and mentoring, he is doubly determined to get his impending role right.
“I had a great Dad whom I lost far too early but it’s given me a lot of motivation to be a great Dad, too,” Rose explains. “As everyone knows in my sport, Dad was a big part of my golf and of my life and, unlike some sporting parents, he played the whole thing really well.
“I can’t say I’ve got over losing him because I don’t think I ever will, but he is someone now I like to tell stories about, crazy things, and anecdotes that make me laugh. He was one of life’s great characters and it is a desperate shame that he will not become a grandparent.
“I think all this is the reason why I am determined to get it right with my baby. I will be there for him or her as much as I can, and I will support in any direction he or she wants to take in life, just as my Dad did with me. Kate, my wife, will travel a lot with me on tour, especially in America where the PGA have a very good creche system, and I will organise my schedule so that I’m either away or at home, and not forever just coming and going on a weekly basis. I’m sure there will be a positive knock on effect with my golf, too. When my life is more balanced, and I’m not so uptight, I always play better.”
The more organised schedule is just one aspect of Rose’s season that he is changing after a year in which, by his own admission, he got badly wrong due mainly to one event: the Ryder Cup. “All I’d ever been told was that once you’d played in one Ryder Cup, you’d never want to miss out again, and the fact that I love matchplay, and the team environment that I grew up in amateur golf, made the Ryder Cup a must for me. It also meant that I forgot most of the reasons why 2007 was so successful for me.
“Two years ago an injury kept me out of the season for a few weeks and that did me a favour because it kept me mentally fresh. Last season it was all about making the Ryder Cup, and because I’d had such a good 2007 I felt as though my place was virtually guaranteed.
“Instead I fell apart and it ended up being a desperate race to secure a top ten finish to qualify for the team. I lost all momentum and went into a downward spiral. It began with everyone talking about me needing to back up my fantastic 2007 the following year. It made me focus on the wrong things. I tried to get too fit, for example, and changed my diet completely. I was banging out the pull-ups but completely miserable. Kate ended up telling me she preferred me fatter and happier. I ended up spreading myself too thinly on both the US and European tours, and I ended up chasing ranking points and places on the Order of Merit. It got to the point where I wasn’t even enjoying playing golf any more.”
All that has changed now, and Rose’s way seems a great deal clearer to the 28-year-old. “I’m back to the approach I had in 2007, I’m not in the gym so much, and I’m not tearing all over the world every week any more,” he explains, his runner-up spot in Dubai an immediate indication of better things to come.
“I’d love to be part of the 2010 Ryder Cup team under Monty, but if I have to rely on a captain’s pick and am in good form, then so be it. I cannot afford to set my focus solely on the Ryder Cup next year. I’ve learnt from my previous mistakes. I see the next ten years as absolutely crucial to me.
“The past ten years have seen me serving my apprenticeship. The next ten are the ten in which I aim to be winning, not just on the US Tour, which I intend to focus a great deal more on for the foreseeable future, but also a major or two.
“I’ve had a taste of what it could be like to win a major. In the final round at Augusta, for example, I genuinely felt I could go on and win, before ending up fifth, and I believe there’s a major or more in me.”
Most of all, though, is the imminent arrival of Rose junior. “My whole life since I was aged 12 has been centered round golf,” he adds. “Kate and I got married two years ago and it’s been wonderful, but it’s going to be great to have a whole new role. I’m really excited about it, and becoming a great Dad is my number one goal for this year. If I can be half as good as my Dad was I’ll be happy, and I believe it will show in my golf too.”
Rose will be using the new TaylorMade R9 this season, the world’s first fully adjustable driver. Go to www.taylormadegolf.com
