AUGUSTA, Ga. — Justin Rose has a knack for seeing the glass half-full. It’s a quality that’s served him well through a career of near-misses at Augusta National.
Rose, now 45, prefers to call this stage of his career an “Indian summer” rather than focusing on his age. He’s got recent evidence to back that optimism, having beaten a strong field at Torrey Pines just three months ago.
He’s etched his name into Masters history for reasons he’d probably rather forget. Rose is the only player to have twice lost in a playoff at Augusta without ever winning the green jacket. He fell to Rory McIlroy in last year’s playoff and suffered a more crushing defeat to Sergio Garcia in 2017. Add his runner-up finish to Jordan Spieth in 2015, and Rose’s name appears three times on the Masters trophy — in the fine print reserved for second place.
But Rose sees these close calls as proof he knows his way around these hallowed grounds.
“I’m very aware that I’ve been close here,” Rose said. “I’m very aware that I’ve had tough, tough losses here. I also am aware that I enjoy this place. I don’t want to feel that those three second-place finishes need to create a different sort of feeling for me.”
The record for collecting runner-up silver salvers without ever joining the Masters Club dinner belongs to the late Tom Weiskopf, who finished second four times.
Augusta National has created its share of haunted players. Greg Norman watched Larry Mize hole a miracle chip in the 1987 playoff and then blew a six-shot lead to Nick Faldo in 1996. David Duval had three chances in a four-year stretch. The list of the heartbroken is long.
When it comes to the green jacket, there’s a fine line between desire and obsession.
“I’d say firmly in the desire camp, just because I know that the latter is not going to help me,” Rose said. “It’s probably professional discipline just to keep it in the desire realm. I think I probably wouldn’t let myself go down the other path. Like I said, that probably won’t be fruitful.”
The near-misses still sting. Against Garcia, Rose held a two-shot lead with six holes to play and watched the Spaniard recover from the azaleas left of the 13th hole to catch him and win in a playoff. Last year, Rose holed a clutch 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th and needed McIlroy to bogey from the fairway just to force extra holes.
Both times he lost to friends. That doesn’t make it easier.
“The key is showing up. The key is to try to be as free as you can in those moments,” Rose said. “Yeah, you have to hope a little bit along the way that it’s your day. It could have been my day in a couple of major championships. Hopefully with that mindset, keep chipping away, my day might still happen where a little bit of something goes my way.”
Augusta National’s familiarity — it’s the only major played on the same course every year — can be both comfort and curse. The scar tissue builds up over time for those who’ve come close.
But Rose continues leaning on that half-full glass.
“I hope it only boosts my belief that I can go ahead and do it,” he said. “I feel like I’ve pretty much done what it takes to win. I just haven’t walked over the line. I feel like I’ve executed well enough to have done the job. From that point of view, I don’t feel like I have to find something in myself to do something different. I truly believe that.
“No, I don’t feel like it owes me anything. I come here with a good attitude. It’s a place that I enjoy being. There’s certain places you get to and you take a deep breath and go, ‘Right, it’s nice to be here.’ Augusta still is one of those places for me.”
