It is very difficult to face questions all the time about being the best player not to win a major, there’s enough pressure trying to win these without trying to justify your great play and your billing in the game.

Justin Rose

Categorized in : Sports

I feel like if I didn't play here it was going to be a little spotty going into the Open, i wanted to play enough golf where I'd have a read on my game going into Shinnecock. All aspects of my game are showing signs.

You begin to develop that relationship with the course, the venue, the feel, the tournament, and it’s somewhere I feel very, very comfortable, i’ve had a lot of good rounds here. Last year I was able to put four together in a row. I take a lot of confidence from that.

Nice to wrap up the second round, a bunch of birdies, which was nice. From today's point of view, nice to finish with a strong par at the last.

I liked the idea of putting another tournament on the schedule near the end of the year to give Justin Rose as good a chance as possible of winning the Race to Dubai... i missed the cut by a shot in 2011 but I loved the course.

That's a pin you're not really attacking with those sorts of club... by Justin Rose

That's a pin you're not really attacking with those sorts of clubs.

I feel like the performance I put in at Augusta would have won many of those championships and I got beat by a better player on the week, i'm doing all the right things, it's just a matter of everything lining up again in one week.

I was very, very pleased and proud to win this one, since then, I feel like it's been a successful couple of years.

This is not in my wheelhouse, you want to become a player that can win on every type of course, and I will take a lot of confidence from the fact that I was able to play a golf course that was, you know, you had to be very aggressive and shoot low and keep shooting low.

Earlier this year, it looked impossible to win, i'm very happy to... by Justin Rose

Earlier this year, it looked impossible to win, i'm very happy to have turned my game around.

It would have been easy to hit it 20, 30 feet right of that pin. by Justin Rose

It would have been easy to hit it 20, 30 feet right of that pin.

It was probably one of the best putts he hit all day. by Justin Rose

It was probably one of the best putts he hit all day.

I'm here these two weeks to obviously compete as best I can but also to get a read of where my game is, i felt I made rapid improvements as the week went on. I'll be more competitive (in Qatar), for sure. I'm going there with a bit of confidence now.

I didn’t play well at all, in fact I played awfully, but you get yourself into situations where sometimes you have to work hard to make a cut, hopefully, it gives me two more days to work on my game and get some momentum going as I start the season.

I played match play against the golf course, just to get into the spirit of match play.

Obviously it was in my hands up 18, i did n’t do a very good job of that.

Right now, I think it's probably as strong a chance as we've had, maybe even ever, listen, the lads can do it. We've all grown up playing lots of links golf to be honest with you, and yeah, it should be a style of golf that we all relish.

We’ve all grown up playing lots of links golf, to be honest with you, and it should be a style of golf that we all relish.

I think with media dollars being so astronomical these days, and four, five, six guys always being the ones that are being used to promote the tournament, I guess it's just a way of trying to sort of incentivize them, a rising tide lifts all ships, so obviously the whole tour has benefited very much from a group of guys.

I'm not sure I'm going to get the golf course easier than that this week, so I could shoot 66 on a Saturday or Sunday in a bit more of a breeze playing the back end of the field and it's actually a better round of golf than today.

The good thing is I feel like I didn't max everything out today, yes, my short game was good, my putting was good, but I feel like there's another level there or another gear or two with the long game.