THE 153RD OPEN

July 17, 2025

Justin Rose

Mixed Zone

Q. No bogeys is pretty good, huh?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I think that's the highlight of the day, bogey-free for sure. Doesn't take much on a links course, one little kind of bounce, one bunker, one something, you can kind of easily rack up a bogey.

Yeah, I felt like the golf course was -- felt a bit scorable in the middle part of my round. I felt like the weather was kind of favourable at that point. It was quite warm. It was windy without being too windy.

I don't know if it was because it was 9:00 at night, but the last couple hours just felt like getting it into the house. It got a bit blustery, definitely got a bit trickier coming in, so happy to keep my concentration and get it in.

Q. You mentioned the time. It's close to -- you were out there a long time, close to six hours. How do you stay present and stay patient when it's slow out there?

JUSTIN ROSE: I actually enjoyed the day. I enjoyed the round. I enjoyed the challenge. I was kind of keyed into all the shots today, so I guess time was irrelevant.

I wasn't quite aware it was taking that long. I don't know why. I don't know what it was. There was a backlog on 7, but that can happen on tour when someone loses a ball or something happens. But don't quite know why exactly we played so slow today.

But yeah, like you said, happy it's 9:00 at night, so now the trick is to come down off the round, get your recovery in, get your food in, get your rest in, try to get to sleep at a decent hour. Obviously it's just day one, so stay focused and key into tomorrow now. It's definitely not easy at this time of day.

Q. What was the challenge today out there? Just the golf course is difficult regardless or --

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I think there's a lot of decent scores, but I think the par-5s offer you an opportunity. That's one thing I didn't do well today. I didn't birdie any of the par-5s.

But the fifth hole was drivable, par-5s were reachable for the most part, so there were odd opportunities to make the easy birdie and keep your round together. I just felt like I played a lot of the tough holes really well today, stepped up on those holes, hit good drives, good iron shots, kind of made easy pars on the tough holes, which kind of made me feel like I could be looking -- I could be on the front foot a little bit on the other holes, but I kind of felt like I just didn't capitalise on the par-5s, otherwise it could have been a great day.

Q. Obviously last year is 12 months ago, but is there a sense of a bit of unfinished business after last year that you're bringing into this year, or are you not really thinking so much about it?

JUSTIN ROSE: No, listen, giving myself legitimate chances to win majors recently is a good feeling. It kind of makes me think I'm coming here as a contender, which is great. I'm not here to try to find something magical. If I play my game and if I stick and do my best, I'm going to give myself a chance, so that's good to know. So that's my mindset coming in.

I'm not trying to avenge anything. This golf course is different to Troon, so you've got to build a body of work. You've got to master this week and this tournament. That's what I'm focusing on.

Q. It seems like the bunkers are a real challenge here. If you want to try to avoid one, you're going to have to worry about another one.

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, that's classic links, and I think that's why guys love this golf course, because strategically it does set up that way. It's fair, but yeah, it's just well-bunkered and strategically a great golf course.

But it's fair as well. It's not sort of -- you can avoid the bunkers here. You kind of know if you're going to hit it in them. Sometimes on a links fairway you hit it and you're like, oh, get a good bounce and anything can still here, whereas I feel like here you sort of know if you've avoided it and you sort of know if you're drafting towards one.

Yeah, that makes it feel kind of more acceptable as a player.

Q. Can I ask for your thoughts on the first hole, being out-of-bounds on both sides. As an opening hole, what are your thoughts on that?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I actually didn't even know there was out-of-bounds until I watched the television this morning, swear to God. I was like, I knew there was out-of-bounds right, I had no idea there was out-of-bounds left. I was like, ugh, there's some things you don't want to see, right?

Yeah, listen, it is what it is. I don't really know why it's there, if I'm honest. Yeah, but I feel like one side is enough, yeah.