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CHRYSLER CLASSIC OF GREENSBORO

September 30, 2005

Justin Rose

GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA

TODD BUDNICK: We thank Justin Rose for joining us after a 7 under 65 in the second round of the 2005 Chrysler Classic of Greensboro. Justin, a good start with a birdie on 1, then a little bit of a slow nine, then a nice start to the Back 9. Talk a little about it.

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, as you say, the 1st hole was a bonus really. Made a long putt there, 26 footer, which was nice to good to get your round started by making a putt, gets the confidence going. Picked up another birdie there at 5 after hitting a lob wedge in close. Then the round really set alight from the turn.

I felt like going out 2 under, I didn't really feel like I was making any progress, not getting frustrated, but I said to myself, "Right." I changed my intensity a little bit going into the Back 9. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work. That worked well for me today. I made four in a row. Could very well have made six in a row. I had a good chance there for birdie at 14, just slipped by. Yeah, was really pleased with that round.

TODD BUDNICK: Six of your birdies inside 10 feet, looked like the iron work was pretty good, 15 of 18 greens.

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, that's solid. I feel that's an area I've been focusing on in my game, is my pitching wedge through 6 iron. I feel like I haven't necessarily made enough birdies this year. I've often blamed my putting. I look at my putting stats and I see that it's not as good as I'd like it to be. Sometimes stats don't tell a full story. Then I went even further back. I think it's because I'm not hitting my iron shots as close. Obviously, the hard work paid off today.

TODD BUDNICK: Knocked on the door a couple times here on TOUR. Still looking for that first win. You have put yourself in position for the weekend. Talk about what you look for over the next two days.

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, for sure. I think I've only really put myself in position once this year in Hartford. It's nice just to be in some sort of position again. It's been a steady year without being spectacular. It's nice to see some really encouraging signs really, getting into the real top end of things.

Just looking forward to tomorrow. Tomorrow is all about jostling for position. Obviously, nobody wins the tournament Saturday. Again, you just go out there and play for position.

TODD BUDNICK: Questions.

Q. Tell us a little bit about 18, how important it was to birdie that last hole, what you used for the approach shot.

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, it was nice. It's always nice to finish like that because, you know, I'd got it to 10 under, dropped back to 9 under. It was nice to sort of get it back to 10 really, just mentally more than anything. Hit a great tee shot there. Hit a three quarter 9 iron into two and a half, three feet. Yeah, made lunch or dinner, or whatever time it is, made food taste better.

Q. After the disappointing 9th hole yesterday, was it a long 24 hours?

JUSTIN ROSE: No. I was actually pleased with myself, how I sort of reacted to that yesterday. For those of you who don't know, had a steady round, 4 under, playing the 9th hole. Hit two solid shots just over the back left of the green, then flubbed my first chip, flubbed my second chip, missed a 5 footer. Sort of making 6 there, yeah, it was disappointing.

First round, I just said to myself, "Hey." I went and worked on my chipping a little bit, but didn't get upset about it at all. Obviously, that showed today.

Q. Can you talk a little about how you've been close, at lease on the PGA TOUR, to winning. Looking back, is it something you're not doing or something other people are doing?

JUSTIN ROSE: I think a little bit of both at Hartford. You know, Brad Faxon shooting 61 and Charles shooting 64 on Sunday to beat me by a shot, you can look at it that I was unlucky. You can look at it that way.

At the same time I made three bogeys through the middle of my round, which put me behind the eight ball really. So I made a few mistakes myself. You know, a little bit of both.

As I said, it's not as if I've had loads of chances this year to win and I haven't pulled any out. I feel like I'm just now beginning to run into a little bit of form. It's just nice to start seeing myself with a chance on the weekend.

Q. Do you ever get tired of people saying, ever since '98, when are we going to see the promise we thought, at least this side of the ocean?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I mean, obviously I won four times in 2002, and that showed people a glimpse hopefully of what I'm capable of. Got into around the top 30 in the world at the age of 21. So, yeah, obviously I think that's performing pretty well. I made some big I've had some big adjustments in my life. Obviously, coming over to the States, I'm sort of relearning a few things, just beginning to feel comfortable again with my surroundings.

I feel like I've made the transition onto the PGA TOUR pretty smoothly. If you look at a lot of guys from Europe that come over here, a lot of the Europeans do struggle. I've been very happy with the way that I have made the transition from the European Tour to the PGA TOUR. Hopefully that is now I'm now going to be able to build on that. I think the transition period's hopefully done, and hopefully look for some bigger and better results.

Q. Was that your plan all along, to go from the European Tour, come to America when you were ready?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I mean, America, I've grown up watching a lot of American golf on TV. It's something I always wanted to do. I feel my game is quite well suited for this TOUR. I think my ideal scenario is to be top 50 in the world and be able to play both tours. When you're playing in the majors, world champs, as you all know, you're in seven events. The criteria for Europe is 11 events. You only need to find four events in Europe. That's what I'd like to do, is obviously play both tours by being top 50 in the world.

Q. When you look back to the early days, project it to now, would you have thought you would have won, done better, or not?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, no doubt. I mean, I feel like you know, I feel like I've had a few peaks and troughs for sure. In an ideal world, you never foresee the troughs coming. When they do come, you have to work hard, deal with them. When you're in a trough, it takes some hard work and a bit of character to get yourself out of it. I proved that to myself.

I've always tried to learn from bad experiences and turn it into positives. I feel like I'm really on the way up right now.

Q. I read somewhere where you said you wanted to win the British Am, play in the Masters and buy a Ferrari. I think you were pretty young. Did you ever buy the Ferrari?

JUSTIN ROSE: No, I still haven't (smiling). Maybe I'm waiting for my first win before I buy the Ferrari. You always change your goals.

Q. How do Forest Oaks stack up against what you've seen over here so far?

JUSTIN ROSE: I think it's a good test of golf. I'm always surprised at how low scoring the golf is around here. The greens have been relatively soft still. I think that's why guys are hitting a lot of greens. If and when the greens firm up, guys are going to hit less greens.

Then chipping around here is really, really tough with the Bermuda. It's at a length right now where it's not long, but the ball just sits down enough and you can't quite get that contact you want. You can be made to look pretty silly around the greens.

I think purely because the greens look pretty soft, that's why the scores are pretty low.

TODD BUDNICK: Let's go through your card, Justin.

JUSTIN ROSE: 1 was a 3 wood, sand wedge to 26 feet, 4 inches (smiling).

5 was a 3 wood, lob wedge to five foot.

10 was a 3 wood, 9 iron to 10 feet.

11, this is probably the longest putt I've holed since I can remember. I hit 8 iron out of the fairway bunker to 53 feet. That was a bonus.

Hit a nice 6 iron to the par 3 12 to five feet.

Chipped up to five feet on the par 5 after being on the front of the green there in two.

14, I actually hit the best shot of the day, where I ended up making par. I hit it in the right trees off the tee. Hit a big high cut 6 iron through a small gap in the trees, which was a bit risky, but ended up 10 feet from the flag. That was a get out of jail moment.

15, I hit two good shots just through the back of the green there. Hit a little 3 wood shot really from sort of four, five yards off the back of the green down to four feet.

3 putt 16.

Driver, 9 iron to three feet the last.

End of FastScripts.

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