Justin Rose, looking to rebound from getting kicked in the 'goolies' in Augusta, positions himself for a run at the Memorial
Andy Lyons
DUBLIN, Ohio — Getting kicked in the “goolies” doesn’t sound like a pleasant experience, so rebounding from said kick has to be something of a badge of honor. That’s the feeling Justin Rose embraced on Friday at Muirfield Village Golf Club after his furious back-nine rally gave him a chance not only for two more rounds of golf but also an outside chance to win the Memorial Tournament for a second time.
Rose bogeyed his first and last holes in the second round, but in between he made six birdies and an eagle-2 at the par-4 third hole for a six-under 66 to land at even-par 144 midway through the Memorial. The Englishman, who won his first PGA Tour title here in 2010, shot an inward 31 at rain-soaked Muirfield Village to help erase the memory of a disappointing 78 the day prior.
“I felt like yesterday I was two under par through eight holes and I felt like, OK … really prepared well this week and coming into this week,” Rose said. “So yesterday was a real kick in the ‘goolies,’ as we say in England. The back nine yesterday, the finish I had, was kind of tough. Tough. But great to rebound today and see some red numbers.”
The effort represented a rebound not just from a surprisingly poor round but also from a poor stretch of golf the last month after he lost in a playoff to Rory McIlroy in the Masters Tournament. Rose was magnificent in the final round at Augusta National Golf Club, closing with a 66 only to finish runner-up for a third time and second via sudden death when McIlroy birdied the first extra hole.
That had to feel like a half-dozen kicks—or maybe more—to, well, you know.
You wouldn’t blame him for having a massive hangover from that disappointment. And maybe, he allowed, that may have been the case with substandard golf since punctuated by a missed cut in the PGA Championship, where he shot nine over par and finished 151st in the 156-man field. At the no-cut Truist Championship the week before the PGA, Rose was seven over par through 36 holes when he withdrew because of an illness.
“Not consciously. Quite possibly,” Rose, 44, said when asked about residual negative effects of the Masters letdown. “I think definitely there is stuff to process there for sure, and I think obviously, a lot of people want to keep talking to you about it, so it's hard to put it a hundred percent behind you all the time.
“I had two weeks off after Hilton Head and felt like I did a little bit of work, but not a ton of work, and I felt like there was a little bit of slippage in that period of time, yeah. So definitely felt like it took a week … well, it's probably taking me a little bit of time just to really kind of find that form again, I suppose.”
Winner of the 2013 U.S. Open among 11 career wins on the PGA Tour, Rose has done better than most of his contemporaries in retaining his form in his mid-40s. His most recent victory came at the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and he is currently 17th in the world, a virtual lock to play in a seventh Ryder Cup for Europe this fall at Bethpage Black in New York.
“I think I'm getting to a stage in my career where that is the goal now sort of having pride of performance and trying to buck the trend of what, you know, is a natural kind of aging process,” Rose said. “There are things that are more difficult or get more difficult, but yeah, you don't want to kind of believe it. I still think my good is good, which is what I've seen this year. It's been inconsistent this year, but my good is good, and that's the most important thing to see.
“I would rather that than top 20th every week, just to know that if I do put things together, I'm capable of winning. I think that's still … I still believe that.”
Which made the latest near miss at Augusta all the more discouraging. But he is coping with it. He doesn’t really have a choice. At least he has no regrets.
“I think I'll look back at it always where there were a couple of opportunities, but Rory gave me a huge opportunity as well,” Rose said, referring to McIlroy’s closing 73 that included a bogey on the 72nd hole to fall into a tie. “You know, there's no way I should be in a playoff when he's in the middle of the fairway on 18 [in regulation]. I stepped up and hit great, hit every bit of good golf shots as I could hit in the moment. I think I learned a lot from 2017 when I was in a similar situation [playoff loss to Sergio Garcia]. So, yeah, from that point of view I can walk away from it a lot easier than if I had done something in the moment where I knew I had let myself down.”
Friday’s round at Muirfield Village was perhaps a signal that Rose has recovered from the hangover. He’s alive and still kicking.