Rose in special company for title bid at Oak Hill

Rose in special company for title bid at Oak Hill

Mark Lamport-Stokes August 7, 2013







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England's Justin Rose hits from the sixth tee during a practice round for the 2013 PGA Championship golf …


By Mark Lamport-Stokes

ROCHESTER, New York (Reuters) - U.S. Open winner Justin Rose will tee off at this week's PGA Championship in very special company as he bids to transform what has already been "a fantastic year" for him into an "incredible" one.

In keeping with tradition, the season's first three major champions are grouped together for the opening two rounds so Rose will play alongside Australian Adam Scott (Masters) and American Phil Mickelson (British Open) at Oak Hill Country Club.

"I'm in the fortunate position of playing in that group that everyone wants to be in," English world number four Rose told reporters on Wednesday about starting the year's final major on Thursday in illustrious company.

"I'm really looking forward to the experience for the first time and looking to really turn a fantastic year into an incredible one.

"Obviously the more accomplished you become as a player, the more you really single out the major championships. And the more times you get to the U.S. PGA, the more you realize it's your last chance of the season to make it a fantastic year."

Making Rose's draw at Oak Hill even tastier is the fact that he and Scott are good friends while the Englishman and Mickelson have competed against one another more than once in recent years on some of golf's biggest stages.

"Adam is a great friend of mine, and I couldn't have been happier when he won the Masters," Rose said of Scott's victory in April at Augusta National where he became the first Australian to claim the year's first major.

"And to follow him as a major champion was sort of icing on the cake really.

"Beating Phil at the U.S. Open, obviously with his record there, I was delighted to win, but you have to feel for Phil in that situation, too. So I was also happy for him to win the (British) Open championship."


SECOND AGAIN

American left-hander Mickelson had to settle for a record sixth runner-up spot in the U.S. Open, finishing two strokes behind Rose at Merion after bogeying three of the last six holes.

"Phil and I have had some good golf over the last eight or nine months, if you include the Ryder Cup," said Rose, referring to his one-up victory over the American in the Cup singles at Medinah last year.

"We've had some nice head-to-head battles and had some fun out on the golf course. So for me, it's a really, really fun pairing the next couple of days."

Long regarded as one of the game's top players, Rose believes he is well equipped to avoid the lengthy dip in form experienced by several first-time major winners in recent years.

"I haven't particularly gotten any advice from the other guys or anything like that, but I'm aware of that not being the case for me," he said. "I feel like I've made those adjustments myself.

"I felt uncomfortable talking about Merion and just keep celebrating that win, I just didn't feel right. I feel like it's something to look back on at the end of my career.

"All of us at this point in our careers need to have our heads down, need to play as hard as you can, need to amass as much success as you can.

"And you look back at it in 10, 15 years time and think, 'That was good, that was bad, I could have done more, I should have done this, should have done that.' But only at that point are you really going to know what you can achieve."

Rose, Mickelson and Scott are scheduled to tee off at 1:45 p.m. (1745 GMT) in Thursday's opening round at Oak Hill.

(Editing by Frank Pingue)

Eighteen isn't only number Tiger Woods is chasing

Eighteen isn't only number Tiger Woods is chasing

Eric Adelson August 7, 2013Yahoo! Sports











ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Eighteen, eighteen, eighteen.

That number is so tied up in Tiger Woods talk that it might as well be embroidered on the back of his Sunday red shirts. The legacy of the No. 1 golfer in the world is inextricably tied to whether he can matchJack Nicklaus with 18 major championships. Woods has 14 now.

But there is another number looming out there:

100.

With his win last weekend, Woods now has 79 career PGA Tour wins, three shy of Sam Snead's all-time record of 82. With 21 more, Woods would become the first player in history to win 100. Woods has plenty of time to do it. And three players asked on Wednesday – Tom Watson, Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose – all think he can get there.

[Related: Scary moment when autograph seekers surge toward Tiger Woods]

"What's that, 21 more to get to 100?" Rose said. "And how old is he? 37? Yeah, I think he'll probably get to 100."

Woods has won five tournaments this year already. If he averages five per year going forward, he'll get to 100 well before he's Phil Mickelson's age (43). Five tournaments a year is not a reasonable pace, but it's not like Woods is going to retire in his early 40s. If he plays for another decade – remember Nicklaus won a major at 46 – he can get to 100 averaging 2.1 wins a year. Snead won his 79th tournament at age 47. Woods is actually closer to 100 wins (he's 79-percent of the way there) than he is to 18 majors (77 percent).

Now the question is: What would be more impressive? Eighteen majors or 100 tournament wins?

It might be the latter.

"How many players on Tour have won five tournaments in a season?" Watson asked Wednesday. "Count 'em up."




Tiger Woods celebrates his win in the WGC Invitational, the 79th victory of his career. (REUTERS)Since 1990, only Nick Price and Vijay Singh have done it. Woods has done it 10 times. No one else has ever done it more than eight times. That's not just getting into contention; it's winning. In his career, Woods has held at least a share of the lead going into the final round of 57 tournaments – a feat in itself – and he's won 53 of them.



"It did strike me once," Rose said, "where the PGA Toursent out a tweet and it was a simple tweet with WWWWW, so on, and I looked at this sea of Ws and I looked at the first five Ws and thought, 'That's my career.' Made it look somewhat, you know, less impressive."

More impressive: There have been only 10 golfers in history with 40 Tour wins, and Woods has nearly twice that amount. Nicklaus won 73 in 25 seasons, while Woods has won 79 in 18 – and that includes his recent three-year drought.

No offense to Snead or Nicklaus, but the game has changed. A lot of the courses have been lengthened, club technology has been improved, the science of the swing has been perfected, and training has intensified. Many of the top golfers today work out like elite athletes. That's part of why the last 20 majors have had 18 different winners.

"The depths of the game, everyone is so much closer," said McIlroy. "You line up the top 100 guys on the range, and you can't tell the difference."

And Woods keeps winning, even now, even after several surgeries and swing alterations.

"The level of consistency that he's had throughout his career," McIlroy said, "even with a couple of swing changes, having a couple of periods where he didn't play much, to win the amount he has and to wintournaments with three completely different golf swings, it's incredible."

And it's not like Woods hasn't won majors. As we all know, he has more of those than all but one other golfer in history. If he gets to 100 without getting to 18, he'll still have a healthy portion of his wins coming at the top events. Only three golfers in history have won 10 or more majors, and Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead are not among them. If Woods gets to 100 total, he'll have 18 more wins than the next winningest golfer, and fewer than 50 golfers in PGA Tour history have won 18 tournaments total.

One hundred is still far in the future, though. For now, the obsession is with 18. And rightfully so, since Woods himself is obsessed with 18.

Just keep in mind that even if Woods doesn't get to that magic number by the end of his career, he can still be the player of the century.

Rose ready to put US Open in rearview mirror

Rose ready to put US Open in rearview mirror


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PAUL NEWBERRY (AP National Writer) August 7, 2013AP - Sports








PITTSFORD, N.Y. (AP) -- Justin Rose started the week at Oak Hill with an errant drive.

Literally.

The U.S. Open champion was involved in a fender-bender near the course, though no one was hurt.

''I guess accidents are accidents,'' he said Wednesday. ''You can never know exactly quite why they happened. I figured I looked left, I looked right, (had) the gap to cross the road to turn left, and a car essentially came out of nowhere. So it was one of those situations where, unfortunately, hit the front left and a bit of a dink. Obviously, it's embarrassing.''

Wreck aside, Rose feels more at ease coming into the PGA Championship.

He's ready to start competing for another major title, rather than just savoring his first.


''I feel like it's something to look back on at the end of my career,'' Rose said Wednesday, one day before the start of the year's final major. ''All of us at this point in our career need to have our heads down, need to play as hard as you can, need to amass as much success as you can. And you look back at it in 10, 15 years' time and think, 'That was good, that was bad, I could have done more, I should have done this, should have done that.' Only at that point are you really going to know what you can achieve.''

Sure, he's still relishing the idea of being a major champion. It was a big relief to remove that hole in his resume. And, used properly, it should give him a sense of confidence coming into the PGA, proving he can hit all the right shots on a pressure-filled Sunday at one of golf's biggest events.

But he's got to use it the right way.

Clearly, Rose had not moved past his triumph at Merion when he played in the British Open three weeks ago. He was in no shape to handle the rigors of Muirfield, failing to even make the cut.

''I wasn't ready with my body,'' he conceded. ''I wasn't ready with my game.''

Rose spent extensive time back home in England after winning the U.S. Open, which cut into his normal workouts and practice time. While it was a joyous time, catching up with family and friends who were there for much of his journey, it also was an experience that left him a bit uncomfortable.
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Justin Rose, of England, tees off on the eighth hole during a practice round for the PGA Championshi …

''I think it's the back-slapping you get from everybody, which is obviously very nice,'' he said. ''But it also in some ways can prevent you from staying fully focused on what's ahead. People want to keep talking about Merion.''

Coming into Oak Hill, he's been able to get back into his regular routine. The trophy is stashed away at home, where it should be. Rose can certainly reflect on his accomplishment in the quiet times, but his main focus is on winning another major.

He doesn't want to be a player who was one-and-done.

''I feel like I'm back to being disciplined,'' Rose said. ''I feel like I'm back to being really in the present and motivated for the rest of the year.''

Per custom at the PGA, Rose will get the honor of playing the first two days in a group with the other major champions from this year, British Open winner Phil Mickelson and Masters winner Adam Scott.

''I'm really looking forward to that experience for the first time,'' Rose said, ''and looking to really turn a fantastic year into an incredible one.''

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