Through the smiles comes the hurt: The unseen side of Justin Rose’s Open heartache

Justin Rose walks off the 18th and collapses into the arms of his wife, Kate. 

You don’t need to be an expert lip-reader to know what she says to him. “I’m so proud of you.” Tears form in Rose’s eyes, but he needs to compose himself, he has several TV interviews and a group of journalists waiting to hear his views on a final-round 67 at Royal Troon which would ultimately see him come up two short of Xander Schauffele.

Rose is as consistent in the way he talks as he is on the golf course. And one thing from which he has never shied away is just how much this tournament means to him.

His “love affair with the Open Championship”, as he describes it, started in 1995 when, as a 14-year-old, he made headlines by making it to Final Qualifying via a Regional Qualifier at his home club, North Hants.

He shot 67 around the Hampshire heathland and fellow members drove through the night to Scotscraig, a few miles around the coast from the Home of Golf, to watch golf’s latest starlet attempt to make it to golf’s grandest stage, the Old Course, a few weeks later, while his brother travelled from South Africa to caddie for him.

But while he fell short on what Rose described as “an incredibly special occasion”, there were no such issues three years later.

Rose qualified for his Open debut at Royal Birkdale at neighbouring Hillside and made the decision to remain an amateur until after the tournament.

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Rose continued that form into the championship itself, opening with rounds of 72 and 66 to sit one back of leader Brian Watts going into the weekend. A third-round 75 in tough conditions on day three kept him in the hunting pack, before that chip-in at 18 on that Sunday saw him sign for a 69.

It was a moment so seismic in the world of golf that one might argue it resonated more than Mark O’Meara’s playoff win over Watts.

But while his decision to maintain his amateur status until after the tournament cost him his share of the £1.7 million prize pot, he came away with so much more.

“It was very timely for me,” Rose reflected a few years later. “There’s definitely a slight misconception that I had turned pro based on my fourth-placed finish at The Open, but that decision actually happened a little bit earlier in the summer. It was a great way to end my amateur career.”

But here’s the cold reality. Rose has never really contended in this grand old championship since that week at Birkdale where he announced himself to the golfing world.

At Muirfield in 2002, he started the final round in a tie for third and three back of the lead. He would finish tied-22nd.

And it wasn’t until 13 years later at St Andrews that Rose troubled the schoolchildren who take charge of those huge yellow scoreboards that tower over the final green at each Open venue. Alas, he couldn’t make any dent in a three-shot deficit through 54 holes and would end up four back of the trio who competed in the last Open playoff.

Somewhat ironically, his best finish in this event came six years ago at Carnoustie, where he needed to drain a 13-foot putt just to make the cut before going on a weekend charge that saw him back-door a tie for second behind Champion Golfer Francesco Molinari.

So when the cut-off to qualify through the world rankings came in May, and Rose was outside the top 50, he was forced to turn to Final Qualifying once again.

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“It’s a special event, the one I’ve dreamed about winning ever since I was a kid,” he said – a soundbite he is surely tired of uttering by now – after taking one of the four spots available at Burnham & Berrow on the Somerset coast.

It felt serendipitous that, quarter of a century on, Rose would bookend his Open career that started so spectacularly by, at last, clutching the Claret Jug.

And, for a few hours at least on a warm but blustery day on this famed Ayrshire links, it looked like it was written in the stars.

Standing alone on the putting green, getting a last few reps in shortly before his 2:05pm tee time, his caddie, Mark Fulcher, calls him over. The bagman puts a hand on his boss’s shoulder, and whispers a few words. “Whatever happens today, we haven’t seen the best of you yet.” Rose allows himself a wry smile through his steely demeanour, and the pair make their way to the first tee.

“Go on Justin! We love you!” screams the thickest Glaswegian accent. It’s not just the English wanting Rose to get the job done here. Rose gets off to the best start, and his birdie at the second is greeted with an almighty roar. One back of overnight leader Billy Horschel and people are starting to believe.

Then, at four, as Rose eyes up another birdie putt – this time to take the outright lead for the first time in the tournament – a deafening silence falls over Troon, broken only by the waves crashing in off the Firth of Clyde. The eight-footer never looks like missing and the place erupts once more. Rose fetches his Titleist Pro V1 from the cup, swings round to the small grandstand that guards the back of the green, and allows himself a first fist pump of the day.

The atmosphere, as they say, is electric.

Now it’s Schauffele’s turn. The American has, rather conservatively, opened with five straight pars, but when he pours in back-to-back birdies at six and seven, the ever-increasing galleries sense they are witnessing something special. When Rose’s putt for two on the Postage Stamp – playing just 100 yards on Sunday – falls, the celebrations from the packed grandstand that surrounds The Open’s most famous hole resembles something more akin to a football match. Rose salutes his masses with a single fist in the Ayrshire sky.

It’s spine-tingling stuff.

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It is here, though, that Rose’s shot at the Claret Jug would start to unravel. Three straight pars and a sloppy bogey – all from the middle of the fairway – allow Schauffele to start turning the screw. And how. A 16-foot birdie at 13 sees him take a lead he wouldn’t relinquish.

There is still one last moment for Rose, who is afforded a standing ovation down the 18th. Schauffele, holding a three-shot lead and just minutes from being crowned the Champion Golfer of the Year, pulls back slightly and allows his playing partner a moment to enjoy the adulation.

One more birdie. One more fist pump. One more huge roar echoing around this tiny corner of south-west Scotland.

That outburst of emotion, Rose admits afterwards, was all about business.

“I won second place,” he explains. “I won FedExCup points. At that point, you’re being a professional.

“Then I walk ten steps and I’m choking back tears. So that’s the shift. I just think it’s such an amazing stage. For me, that’s the best look in golf – those two long grandstands that you walk down and the big yellow leaderboard. That’s what I associate as a magic moment.”

He pauses for a moment.

“Gutted,” he sighs. “I walked off the course and it hit me hard because I was so strong out there today.

“I really played the way I wanted to. I got off on the front foot and felt comfortable with it all day. I did a lot of the hard things really well, just a critical moment midway through the back nine momentum-wise. Xander got it going, I hit a couple of really good putts that didn’t fall, and then suddenly that lead stretched.

“In terms of how I played and the execution of my emotions today, my mindset, I left it all out there. I’m super proud of how I competed.”

His mind drifts back to that brief moment with Kate, as well as his children, 15-year-old Leo and Lottie, 12.

“I would say life’s been harder for the last five, six years in terms of parenting and kids getting older,” he explains. “They’re less mobile. They can’t travel as much. There are more demands on us as a family.

“But I have a feeling we’re going to come through the other side where, in the not too distant future, it’s going to get easier.”

He smiles, before adding: “Where the kids don’t want to know you anymore.”

“I’m coming to a good stage of my career again. I’ve adapted to travelling a lot more than I used to, but I’m learning how that all feels and works. Hopefully I can find a nice balance again and compete.

“But they’re always proud of me. They’re very philosophical. They get it. They know it’s hard. You want them to see you as a winner. They know that.

“As I get older, it would be cool to share that with them.”

As for his latest major top-ten – his 22nd, to be precise, and second of the year after a tie for sixth at the PGA Championship – it’s proved Rose, who turns 44 next week, can get the job done on the biggest stage.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence that I can,” he smiles. “That’s what I’m gunning for. That’s what I’m working hard for is to have these big time moments in my career.”

With that, he leaves the media area, signs a few autographs for fans, and gets into the courtesy car waiting for him by the first tee. He slumps back into his seat and shuts his eyes, pulling his cap over his face. It’s the first time he has allowed his smile to leave his face all day.

This will sting for a long time. But his tie for second means he is already qualified for next year’s Open at Portrush.

More importantly, though, he’s got an entire nation believing again.

Alex Perry is the Associate Editor of bunkered. A journalist for more than 20 years, he has been a golf industry stalwart for the majority of his career and, in a five-year spell at ESPN, covered every sporting event you can think of. He completed his own Grand Slam at the 2023 Masters, having fallen in love with the sport at his hometown club of Okehampton and on the links of nearby Bude & North Cornwall.

Associate Editor