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THE MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT PRESENTED BY MORGAN STANLEY

May 31, 2008

Justin Rose

DUBLIN, OHIO

JUSTIN ROSE: It's really paid off. I've seen the dividends this week. I made a few mistakes, but I rolled with the punches and I seem to have bounced back well this week.

Q. How good does it feel like if you come off a bogey, go on the next hole, you know what that hole's over, I'm still going to have some fun, bang, eagle?
JUSTIN ROSE: You know what, it actually makes the game fun.

Q. Funny how that works.
JUSTIN ROSE: Exactly. And it's so easy to beat yourself up out here, especially on a golf course like this which is playing incredibly tough. But I'm enjoying my golf right now. I'm enjoying the way I'm thinking and putting everything in perspective and seeing the bigger picture and obviously there's no mystery to the fact that I'm playing well, I'm thinking well. I think a lot of the guys who do play well, they keep their attitudes under control.

Q. Do you think that helped with the long rain delay too? Because a lot of guys go into a rain delay and are sitting there for a couple hours and come back out and say, oh, man.
JUSTIN ROSE: Well, actually my back was a little tight in the early part of the day and it gave me an opportunity to really stretch and get a few things worked on on my back and I came out feeling much better in the second half of the round so that came at a great time for me.

Q. Got to be happy going into tomorrow?
JUSTIN ROSE: No doubt. Obviously Mathew Goggin is playing pretty well. He's had the lead all week, seems to be very comfortable with it. Yeah, I put myself in touching distance now and I feel that if I could get to four or five I would have a chance going into tomorrow. And I got to five.

Q. You keep having fun on the golf course. Everything else will take care of itself.
JUSTIN ROSE: Thank you.

Q. (When asked about the ball moving.)
JUSTIN ROSE: It was just I wanted to make a hundred percent sure. Obviously in a situation like that it was the most bizarre thing because obviously when your putter is behind the ball you can't sometimes clearly tell what happened. But as I was about to make contact with the ball, I had my head down on my line and I just saw my line oscillate there. And I just wanted to make a hundred percent sure my ball didn't move out of its original position.
I was playing with Rocco, and he was clearly watching my stroke. He had a very similar putt to me and he didn't see anything. He was comfortable that the ball didn't move. It just took me a little bit by surprise and it happened at a weird point in my stroke that I just wanted to make a hundred percent certain.

Q. Saving strokes are so vital. That's two shots there that you wouldn't want to give up?
JUSTIN ROSE: It may have been one shot, I think, but still strokes are so vital. But you know what, the game's played in that spirit. And I think that's -- it's hard to do that, you know, when you know how hard you fought to get strokes back. But I think that's what makes this game so good and why we all enjoy playing it.

Q. How surprised were you to walk off the course and see all of the people in the same little position of a five at five at this point?
JUSTIN ROSE: Five guys 5-under? Yeah, I haven't really assessed the leaderboard yet. All I know is I've got myself within touching distance of the lead and it's been a position that I would have been delighted with at the start of the day and it gives me a great chance tomorrow.

Q. That bunker shot on 15.
JUSTIN ROSE: I had just come off bogey again on 14. 14's been a tough hole for me this week, but I managed to put it behind me. That's what I've been so good at this week is staying in the present and putting the bad stuff behind me and I got rewarded there with a great bunker shot on 15 for eagle. Then made a nice putt on 16 to really get myself within touching distance.

Q. You got yourself in position here. What's the mindset tomorrow when you come out?
JUSTIN ROSE: I think it's actually a great spot. I would prefer to be leading by three, but being three back is actually a great place to be. Certainly the last group, there's really no pressure. It's a situation where you can go out and be really positive. I don't need to be overly aggressive. You can't really -- you can't go at every pin on this golf course. You got to respect the course. But you can go out there and play. It's mine to win, you know, it's not mine to lose. I'm in a position where it's a win-win situation, really.

Q. What about the guy -- if there's still one guy at the top when you start your day, it only takes one bobble from one guy and then you got a whole possible log jam waiting to happen there?
JUSTIN ROSE: Exactly. So there's no doubt. But if the leader doesn't go out and play well, then it brings a lot of guys into the mix and therefore you got to believe that one of the guys who is at 4- or 5-under par is going to go out and play well and shoot 4-, 5-, 6-under par, depending upon what the weather does tomorrow. I don't know. But you can bet that one of the guys that's in the bunch is going to play well.

Q. Given what you have done recently, and I know the first day you said it's great to be here because I haven't done a whole bunch here this year, do you think you could be that guy?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I think that obviously I've won relatively recently in the last matter of months. Won in November of last year. So I was in the hunt a lot last year and I really felt comfortable with it. So I don't think you forget those things too quickly. So I feel good about my position and hopefully I can.
My goal more tomorrow is to stay in the moment and just commit to my shots and that's how you get the job done. Not by getting ahead of yourself and thinking and talking about winning.

Q. How much did the rain change the course today compared to the previous two days?
JUSTIN ROSE: It made it a touch more playable I think. I think it was probably the same amount of wind today as yesterday. So I don't know, the average scores probably a good two shots better, I would have thought, from yesterday. And I saw two or three decent scores and there was a couple more pins you could go at. I think the pins were possibly a touch more generous today than they were yesterday.

End of FastScripts

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