MASTERS TOURNAMENT

April 10, 2026

Justin Rose

Quick Quotes

Q. You've played over 70 or so competitive rounds here. You must be one of the most experienced guys in the field. What feels different this year? Does the course feel different, and do you feel different?

JUSTIN ROSE: Someone said it's the first time in 15 years there's no rain during the four days of the tournament, provided nothing crazy happens. So that's kind of interesting.

So that makes it a little bit different for sure. Obviously the conditions, it's beginning to look baked out. Obviously this whole area here where everyone is walking feels like a cricket pitch rather than a golf course now.

The course was good today. It being in the morning, there was a little bit of moisture in the greens. There wasn't a ton of wind. It felt somewhat gettable. I thought the pins were just a little easier than yesterday. So kind of surprised to potentially not see more guys making a run at it.

But I anticipate a few guys getting just a touch further ahead than they are now, yeah.

Q. Do you feel different this year?

JUSTIN ROSE: No, I feel the same, which is good. I think if I can feel the same, that means I'm doing a lot of other good things because I'm not feeling older and stuff like that. I feel the same. I feel in good form. I feel in good spirits. Yeah, enjoying it.

Q. Do you use the last year's result as fuel, as motivation for this year at all?

JUSTIN ROSE: Not really, if I'm honest. It's the obvious -- of course I want to win this tournament. I don't really need to try any harder; know what I mean? I think trying harder is -- I just think the experience in that is probably trying harder ain't going to help me. So that's probably the dance I'm doing with myself. I know the intrinsic motivation is there. It's about execution, and typically when you play your best golf, you're always lighting it up rather than getting more intense.

Q. Slow start for you on the greens a little bit. I could see the frustration building. What were you telling yourself knowing the ball-striking was there that you could get the scoring that you wanted out of this round if you just kept at it?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, what's frustrating, definitely some putts did slide by, and when you are trying to sort of make a run, get some momentum going, it is frustrating for sure, especially when you hit really good shots. Like into 14, for example, four feet, uphill, right to left, it's like, ugh.

The six-, seven0, eight-footers are tough here. They can slide by if you're slightly off with your pace. But yeah, listen, I think that was probably the most I could have shot today.

But also, I felt like the round could have gone either way. I'm under a bush on No. 5, already 1-over for the round. I felt like momentum was definitely going the wrong way at that point in my round, so I think I did a good job of digging in at that point and rebuilding the round, so I give myself a lot of credit for finding that momentum and finding that good play.

Obviously, yeah, I'd have loved to have capitalized on one or two more, but there's going to be a ton of guys that walk off this golf course feeling the same.

Q. Can you speak to the extent to which you rely on a process, a routine between shots, and will you rely on it for the weekend as well coming up?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I've got my way of trying to play this golf course. I think I have an idea of how to play it and how to play each pin and which pins I like and which pins I need to respect and those types of things.

So yeah, it's about breaking it down day-to-day. I think conditions-wise, I'll have to look. I think there's going to be a slight shift in the wind going into Sunday. What was the question?

Q. Shot by shot, meaning pre-shot routine that you rely on --

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I've got a very robust pre-shot routine for sure, and I'm always trying to iron it out. I'm always trying to get the flow of that. I'm always trying to slightly speed it up rather than getting stuck over the ball for too long, all that type of stuff.

Yeah, I'm very conscious of my routine for sure.

Q. Adam Scott was saying recently he thinks that 9, 10 and 11 is a tricky corner of the course. It was also tricky for you today. Do you think of that a little bit like Amen Corner?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I mean, given these conditions, 9 with the fairways rolling out, you kind of hit a good tee shot you're getting a nice angle at that green, so I don't necessarily see that as overly tough.

10, just a beautiful hole, isn't it.

I think 11, where the pin was on 11 today was the most comfortable flag on the green. It's kind of back right where you want to hit the ball.

But any other pin, for sure, you still have to kind of play away from the flagstick, which makes it tough.

Yeah, but the way they played today, it was 9-iron, 9-iron, 7-iron, so it wasn't as tough as it could be.

Q. 10:00 tee time, what time did you get up?

JUSTIN ROSE: 6:40, I think, was the alarm. Yeah. Cup of tea, did my book, pins, all that type of stuff.

Q. Can you speak about your relationship with your caddie Fooch? I think on 5 you told him (indiscernible); on 9 you had about a three-minute chat. What was that like throughout your round today? Is it a back-and-forth?

JUSTIN ROSE: Always. It's just a delicate balance, isn't it, because I think it's such a -- if someone interjects and puts an idea in there that's not your own, it's very hard to then commit to it. So we have this sort of relationship where I need to see it; I need to drive the vision of what we want to do.

Yeah, we've discussed that 5th tee shot numerous times, and there was a plan that I didn't necessarily like. Anyway, whatever, that was that.

On No. 9, that was more me. I really wanted to hit 9-iron in there, and the wind wasn't fitting that club, and I just didn't really want to hit 8-iron in there because I felt like it was going to skip through the green. So I was really trying to bide my time and wait for that little moment where I could commit to the 9-iron. It was a great moment where I was able to get it quite close to the hole and make birdie.

You don't always have that luxury of -- because the course, in general, the play is fairly slow, you know there's going to be some backups, Amen Corner coming, I could afford myself that moment there. But sometimes on TOUR you don't have that luxury; you just have to pull the trigger and go.

Q. In what way are you a better player now, would you say?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what to compare it to really. World No. 1 me? Am I better than World No. 1 me? I don't know.

Q. Are there some areas --

JUSTIN ROSE: I think I'm holding steady in some areas for sure. I think I'm driving -- well, World No. 1 I was top 3 in driving. I don't know, it's hard, because that's like eight years, nine years ago now. It's a high bar.

I feel good with where I'm at. That's all I know. I feel like I can still chip away at certain things. I've still got tons of improvement. I feel like that's the bit that keeps me going is I do believe that next week I can be better than this week. Whether I am or not, who knows. But the standard out here is getting better, so you kind of have to be to keep pace.

Q. I know course conditions, pin placements, all of that is different than Sunday last year. When you felt like you might have played the best round of golf in your life. But you personally as a player, mentally, where you are, how do you compare these first couple days to the way that you felt that Sunday?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, it's interesting, I think early -- to kind of go out and play that type of round where I found that mindset where it mattered most, that's what you want as a pro.

First couple days it feels routine. You're just really trying to go through your processes. But I did, I felt like I got into a bit of cruise control today. I felt like I was cruising through the round and sort of -- I was on the front foot, I would guess, for about the last few hours of the round.

I felt like if I was thinking anything, I was thinking birdie. That's a nice mode to be in, and that felt similar to Sunday. That Sunday of the Masters last year, I felt like I needed to birdie every hole. I kind of wasn't aware what Rory was going to do on 13, all these type of things. I was just trying to run to the clubhouse as fast and hard as I could.

That's the luxury of playing from behind sometimes. But there's a lesson in there of that's the best way to play sometimes, too.