PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland (Reuters) -Justin Rose will make his 23rd bid to win the British Open when he tees off at Royal Portrush on Thursday and he firmly believes he can fulfil his dream of lifting the Claret Jug at the age of 44.
The Englishman has twice been joint runner-up, last year and in 2018, after finishing fourth as a 17-year-old amateur in 1998.
“As a kid, on the putting green since I’ve been playing the game since probably age eight, I’ve been dreaming about winning The Open of course,” Rose told reporters on Wednesday.
“1998 obviously was a fairytale story and ending to my amateur career. I’ve been close a couple of times. As a British player, it’s been the one that I’ve dreamed about winning and holed the putt many times in my mind.”
Twelve months ago at Troon, Rose ended two shots behind American Xander Schauffele.
“If I look back at Troon, I think I played as good a golf as anybody for the whole entire week,” he said.
“I went out and I shot the second lowest score of the day on Sunday, but I got beaten by Xander who played an amazing round of golf.”
Rose, the 2013 U.S. Open champion, endured another near miss in April when he lost the Masters in a playoff against his Ryder Cup teammate Rory McIlroy, seven years after losing the Green Jacket in the same way to Sergio Garcia.
“Obviously, when Rory was there over his three-footer to win and the tap-in, I was definitely, oh, man, I’ve kind of been here before watching the same story, being in a playoff against Sergio, so there was definitely a little bit of deja vu.
“I was able to still be happy for Rory in that moment, and it had been a long time coming for him. It was always going to be a matter of time,” Rose said.
Northern Irishman McIlroy, the world number two, will start as one of the favourites to land his second British Open title, roared on by the home fans.
“Rory is obviously a local hero around here, and rightly so. The legend around him in these parts has been growing for a long, long time,” Rose said.
“I feel like the pressure is off him almost from that point of view. This would just be like cherries on top of everything for him.”
Rose acknowledged he was probably too old to improve his game much.
“I would say it’s going to be hard to get a ton better and transform my game to suddenly add new dimensions. But in situations and certain environments, I can still bring my best, and if I do that I still feel very competitive,” he added.
(Reporting by Ed OsmondEditing by Christian Radnedge)
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