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TRAVELERS CHAMPIONSHIP

June 26, 2010

Justin Rose

CROMWELL, CONNECTICUT

DOUG MILNE: Okay. I'd like to welcome Justin Rose. Justin holds on to his lead heading into the final round, shot a 68 today. Can you talk a little bit about your round today and then we'll take some questions.
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, sure. I mean obviously I thought the start was key for me today. Hit a lot of good shots early in my round, birdies at 5 and 6 really felt like that got the round going and got me back into the comfort zone.
And then I guess just a day when nothing really went in on the greens at all and only really one loose swing on the tee at 13. Had a little bit of wait there, what have you, just a little bit of a slack tee shot, I suppose.
But again, after that little -- after that shot, rallied well, up-and-down on 14th for par, birdied 15. Hit it quite close there on 16. So bounced back really from the only bogey of the day.
But I guess the tale of the day was really I made nothing, the longest putt I made was about I think someone said 4' 10" for par on 17. So really happy to have a day like that on the greens and still shoot 68 and still maintain that lead.
DOUG MILNE: Thank you. Questions?

Q. Can you talk about what happened on 18, what you guys were looking at in the trailer afterwards?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah. There was a word from a camera man that my ball may have moved as I took the club back. I was in a sand-filled divot on 18. They reviewed it and said absolutely not, the ball didn't move.
My caddie told me after I putted out there on 18, he said, listen, just don't sign your card. There's a potential ruling here. But you know, as a player you know if your ball's moved, and I certainly was completely out of left field. I was like, what? So I felt pretty confident we would be okay on it.

Q. Can you go over your shot on 13, how long you had to lay up?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah. I dropped it back there, I think I had like 380 to the flag from where we were, so I took on quite an aggressive layup because I felt like -- I hit 3-wood from where I was, which I felt would get me past the water and then short of the next set of water.
It left me 109 yards, which I actually hit a great sand wedge in there to about five feet, had a left-to-right putt, which I actually hit a great putt there. I over-read it, but it was one of the putts that I felt like I hit -- I hit a lot of good putts today that didn't go in and that was one of them. I hit on my lie and kept my head still and it didn't go in.
Yeah, it would be nice to save that par, but at the same time, you know, you can only do what you can do. I hit a good putt and had to move to the next tee.

Q. When you go so long without a bogey, is it easy or hard to get back in mind?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah. There was a slight feeling of, this is like a slight -- a low feeling. I had to really sort of try hard for the rest of the round to keep my energy up, to really keep things going.
I made a really good up-and-down. It was a tough shot left of 14, and getting that up-and-down I felt perked me up obviously walking to the 15th tee. Didn't want to back up a bogey with another.
And then I made another really good up-and-down from the right of 15. I didn't putt well today, but I didn't put a lot of pressure on my putting with the greens I missed. I chipped to a foot, two feet, tap-in. I didn't hole a very long footage of putts because my chipping was so good that that was the case.
So obviously on one hand I didn't putt well, but on the other hand, I chipped fantastically today so that's why I managed to score pretty nicely.

Q. Being so late in the day, do you think it had anything to do with the lack of rest or was it just your mechanics were off a little or what?
JUSTIN ROSE: A bit of everything. I hit some good putts, like I said. I felt like the greens were pretty slow. They were a bit more bumpy; poa annua, obviously that's what you expect. You need to putt pretty pure on poa annua to knock the ball in late in the day.
But a bit of both. I did pull a couple putts, and I felt like I pushed a couple. Nothing really that -- I would say I hit the majority of putts pretty solid and a couple I did miss, and a couple I misread, so it just added up to nothing going in.

Q. You've kind of learned how to become a front runner, you only have one PGA TOUR win, but you've had a lot of leads and international wins obviously. Do you feel on a day when you didn't putt well you still kept the lead, does that make you feel good?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah. I think so. I think I did a lot of things -- yeah, there were a lot of things that felt like today wasn't going my way, but still, I kept my nose in front. I kept the round under control; I kept the mistakes to a minimum, and I think those are the kind of days you need to have when you just don't feel like things are going your way.

Q. (Indiscernible).
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah. To be honest with you, I didn't really have much of a concept of that. I knew I was ahead. I knew I probably wasn't as many ahead, and I wasn't really worried about how many I wanted to be ahead.
So you know, but I knew that the up-and-down on 15 was good just for momentum, felt like if I'd have made the putt at 16, I would've been really happy. And hit another great shot into 18, another 12-footer there.
So I created chances, but it just didn't quite happen. Like I said, I'm happy to get out of today, to be honest, a couple under, all things considered.

Q. Three ahead is relatively comfortable, but will you remember back to '05 when you were leading and Faxon came out of nowhere?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah. Three shots. Regardless of whether you're comfortable, it's very much -- Rickie Fowler was three or four ahead of me going into Sunday last week. So you know -- or a couple weeks ago, so it's not relatively comfortable. There's still golf to be played.
Yeah, but doesn't change my mindset tomorrow. I don't really mind if I'm six ahead or three ahead, that's not going to change how I start the round, certainly.

Q. Is there a mind change, since you won, going into the lead of the tournament on the fourth day, say a month ago or three months ago changed?
JUSTIN ROSE: I think there's less pressure on me tomorrow than there would have been had I not won the Memorial, for sure. Trying to chase down your first victory is a hard thing to do.
So it's one less thing I gotta think about, can I get over the line. I've done that now. So certainly I would love to win my second tomorrow, but again, it's kind of getting ahead of myself, too. That's what I have learned over the years is that 72 holes -- that's why it's a 72-hole tournament because a lot can happen.
But you know, I'll sleep much easier tonight probably than I would would have a month ago, that's the answer to your question, for sure.

Q. (Indiscernible).
JUSTIN ROSE: Not at all, to be honest. I think I would hazard a guess it's pretty much locked up now. I don't think it's worth certainly paying attention to.

Q. (No microphone).
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah. I think I'll make the decision not to watch it with my caddie because it would be way too much emotion. We would probably be both burned out going to the tee, so I'm going to try and watch that game and conserve as much energy watching as possible because I know it's going to be a thriller.
If we score first, I'll be waiting the whole game for them to score and vice versa. But yeah, the goal at the start of the week was to play well enough to watch the football game. So mission accomplished.
DOUG MILNE: We good? Okay. Good luck tomorrow, Justin.
JUSTIN ROSE: Thank you guys.

End of FastScripts

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