Justin Rose has won a Major, been world No.1 and got Olympic gold yet he admits the Ryder Cup ignites a passion in him unlike anything else in golf.
English veteran Rose, 43, is all smiles this week after being named one of Luke Donald’s six captain’s picks for Rome later this month. He got the nod along with Ludvig Aberg ,Tommy Fleetwood, Sepp Straka, Shane Lowry and Nicolai Hojgaard.
Rose feels it vindicates both his encouraging form on the PGA Tour, where he made the BMW Championship in the FedExCup Playoffs, and also the lengths he went to in a bid to prove to Donald he was ready for his sixth appearance in Team Europe‘s side after even cancelling family holidays to find his form.
The father of two reflected: “Four years, it slips by pretty quickly and I know there wasn’t a ton of good golf in there for me. As this opportunity came around, I felt like it was a huge motivator for me.
“One of the biggest inspirations I had was the Ryder Cup to really kind of prove that I was still playing well and that obviously my form was good and not give Luke too much of a headache in terms of trying to justify a pick in me, because experience is always a great thing to have in a team. But you need a guy who is playing well. There’s no point in having experience and no game.
“So my real energy and focus through the FedExCup was to sort of prove that I was playing well and I kind of canceled a couple of family holidays that we had planned just to really put some work in and prove that I was playing well enough. It was really front and centre for me the last couple of months.”
Justin Rose, right, with European team-mates in 2018
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Rose was helped this year by captain Donald having six wildcards in a change to the selection criteria but the veteran insisted he was always trying to qualify automatically.
He added: “My mentality was to try and make the team but it was also just all about proving that my game was in good enough shape to justify a pick. There were going to be a lot more opportunities for a pick this time.
“Nevertheless, I’m super grateful for the opportunity because it has not gone my way in previous Ryder Cups. It’s not something…
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