A more crushing playoff loss to Sergio Garcia in 2017<\/a>. A runner-up by four shots to Jordan Spieth in 2015.<\/p>\nAll that means to Rose is he knows his way around Augusta National, and that\u2019s the inspiration he brings to the Masters this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very aware that I\u2019ve been close here,\u201d Rose said Monday afternoon. \u201cI\u2019m very aware that I\u2019ve had tough, tough losses here. I also am aware that I enjoy this place. I don\u2019t want to feel that those three second-place finishes need to create a different sort of feeling for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The record for winning the silver salver awarded to the runner-up without ever having Tuesday night plans at the Masters Club dinner is held by the late Tom Weiskopf, four times a bridesmaid.<\/p>\n
Weiskopf was haunted by coming close without ever winning the Masters, as were so many others over the years. Greg Norman had Larry Mize hole a miracle chip in a playoff in 1987 and blew a six-shot lead to Nick Faldo in 1996. David Duval, who had three chances in a four-year stretch. It\u2019s a long, sad list.<\/p>\n
There is desire and obsession when it comes to the green jacket.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say firmly in the desire camp, just because I know that the latter is not going to help me,\u201d Rose said. \u201cIt\u2019s probably professional discipline just to keep it in the desire realm. I think I probably wouldn\u2019t let myself go down the other path. Like I said, that probably won\u2019t be fruitful. Professionally, I\u2019m not going to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rose had a two-shot lead with six holes to play and Sergio Garcia in the azaleas left of the 13th hole, but the Spaniard caught him and beat him in a playoff. Last year, Rose holed a 20-foot birdie putt on the 18th and needed McIlroy to make bogey from the fairway on the 18th to get in a playoff. <\/p>\n
Both times he lost to friends. That doesn\u2019t make it easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key is showing up. The key is to try to be as free as you can in those moments,\u201d Rose said. \u201cYeah, you have to hope a little bit along the way that it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
And now he returns to Augusta National, which holds so much familiarity as the only major held on the same course every year. That\u2019s what can make it so difficult to win after coming so close. There\u2019s a lot of scar tissue built up over the years.<\/p>\n
Rose is leaning on that half-full glass.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope it only boosts my belief that I can go ahead and do it,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve pretty much done what it takes to win. I just haven\u2019t walked over the line. I feel like I\u2019ve executed well enough to have done the job. From that point of view, I don\u2019t feel like I have to find something in myself to do something different. I truly believe that.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, I don\u2019t feel like it owes me anything. I come here with a good attitude. It\u2019s a place that I enjoy being. There\u2019s certain places you get to and you take a deep breath and go, \u2018Right, it\u2019s nice to be here.\u2019 Augusta still is one of those places for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP golf: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/golf<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) \u2014 Justin Rose, the player who missed the cut 21 straight times to start his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2493,3330,2489,2490,44,982,355,1146,3329,2488,3328,399,86,56,1141,2491],"class_list":["post-5467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-justin-rose","tag-augusta","tag-david-duval","tag-ga-state-wire","tag-georgia","tag-golf","tag-greg-norman","tag-jordan-spieth","tag-justin-rose","tag-larry-mize","tag-masters-golf-tournament","tag-nick-faldo","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-sergio-garcia","tag-sports","tag-the-masters","tag-tom-weiskopf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}