WGC NEC INVITATIONAL

August 23, 2002

Justin Rose

JUSTIN ROSE: I'm very happy. Another good round of golf. I played well today. Great position.

GORDON SIMPSON: Just a couple of bogeys. You made some good birdies. Very tidy card on the first nine.

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I hit it in the left rough off the 12th and didn't have much of a shot. Then played a good recovery on the third shot to six feet and didn't make the putt.

And then the other bogey was a terrible 3-putt. I had 12, 15 -- about 14 feet straight uphill. And I got a bit too aggressive on it, rolled it six feet back. Just an explosion. Then rolled it about 3 feet, and made a good 3-footer coming back.

I ripped a drive down the next to settle me down again.

GORDON SIMPSON: As you say, overall is your position. You're actually really in the shake up now.

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, exactly. I holed a good -- what I was happy with is I holed a good 5-footer for par on 17, which seemed to be a tricky green. And then to finish par, birdie was good for me.

Q. What's it going to take tomorrow and Sunday? What is the course going to give up?

JUSTIN ROSE: Well, the weather is going to be good, so I think more of the same, I guess. I think at the beginning of the week my caddy said 67.

Q. You think that would win it, the way they're shooting?

JUSTIN ROSE: But Sunday might be a little harder. It's tough to keep the pace going four days. Everybody has one day where they don't quite get it going as well. I'd be happy with 16.

Q. (Inaudible.)

JUSTIN ROSE: It's weird. It's a hell of a lot of money. But when you're in the situation, you kind of really -- you don't think about the money, to be honest with you, too much. I've never tried to, anyway. It's a by-product of playing good golf.

GORDON SIMPSON: Titles and rankings would be your goals?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, that's what I'm really interested in right now.

Q. You've been in contention, the first three tournaments in the states. Is that another beyond-your-wildest-dreams sort of situations?

JUSTIN ROSE: Not really. I think my game this year has gotten to a level where I'm beginning to expect to contend. Yeah, I'm delighted to come here for the first time and play to my potential, and that's always nice. But I do believe in myself that I can play at this level now.

Q. Is it nice, also, that a lot of Americans will remember you as the guy who suddenly appeared at the Open four years ago and then kind of vanished for a little bit, for you to say, "Hello, I am really here. I'm back"?

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, exactly. I mean -- yeah, it's good to be playing groups with him and things like that in America. Because obviously he's one of their stars. It's easy for your name to be recognized. Even Phil says to me, he knew that basically I had a good year this year. But he said, "You had a good year, last year." They follow you, which is nice. It's good to know.

Q. You outscored him. You outscored Tiger at the Open. It's a positive step.

JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I guess it's believing in myself and standing on the first tee and not being intimidated and going out there and trusting my own game, I guess is where that comes from.

Q. Were you watching him much? Do you tend to do that?

JUSTIN ROSE: I'm always interested in -- yeah, he's the second best player in the world and see what it's all about, see what it takes. He's a wonderful scrambler, just gets the ball in the hole. I think his biggest attribute is he doesn't let his bad shots get to him. He stays patient and doesn't get rattled out there.

GORDON SIMPSON: You're pretty good at that yourself, are you not?

JUSTIN ROSE: I'm fairly good at that, yeah.

Q. What do you feel is the strength of your game?

JUSTIN ROSE: I think the ability to go out and play when I'm not swinging the club, when I don't feel comfortable on the range. Because I haven't felt too comfortable on the range the last two days. And to be able to go out and churn out a couple of good scores, I think is one of my strengths.

Q. Do you think it might be difficult for you to watch the Ryder Cup. If they hadn't kept the same teams, you might have been in there.

JUSTIN ROSE: I would have been in it, but you know the story, and you know what it's all about. So it was never an issue. And I think the guys in it deserve their place, and that's the way it's going to be. I think it will be good for me to watch it now, thinking it's a real possibility for me in 2004. I might take more note about what it was all about, instead of viewing it as a fan, viewing it as sort of homework.

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