Justin Rose, 2013 US Open and the 2016 Olympic gold medallist, has his eyes on ending England’s wait for an Open champion.
Rose has never finished higher than fourth at the Open Championship, a feat he achieved as an amateur in 1998 but his victory in the WGC-HSBC Champions last year started an impressive run of form, which has seen him rise from 13th to third in the official World Golf Rankings.
And he is among the favourites to contend at Carnoustie this week and become the first Englishman to lift the Claret Jug since Nick Faldo in 1992.
Rose said: ‘Obviously, it has been a barren run (for English golfers). I don’t believe in superstition or anything like that, but I just feel like my game is in a good spot.
‘I feel like I’m playing well and creating chances regularly. So, yeah, it’s up to me, really. Not stats or records. It’s just about me and playing this golf course this week and creating my chance to win.
‘I don’t mind expectation. If you want to play at the top level, that’s what you’ve got to live with. I’ve got no problem with that.
‘I’m excited with where my game is at. I feel like it should perform well in Majors coming up.’
Victory at Carnoustie could see Rose leap above Dustin Johnson and Justin Thomas in the rankings and the 37-year-old feels lifting the Claret Jug would be a fitting way to do it.
‘In terms of getting to world number one, I’ve really said that I want to get to world number one by winning golf tournaments,’ he said.
‘There could be opportunities in the next six months. I could get there by finishing seventh somewhere because there’s always permutations.
‘I want to get to world number one by winning, and that keeps my goal simple. I want to win The Open.’
Rose has managed just one top-10 finish at the Open Championship since his exploits at Royal Birkdale in 1998, but he does not think his record tells the full story.
‘I’m kind of comfortable with how bad my record’s been here,’ he said. ‘It’s nothing new to me, and I don’t feel like there’s a reason for it either.
‘I feel like I’ve created some better opportunities in the Open than my record suggests.
‘So I kind of come in here knowing that I can play links golf really, really well, even though maybe I haven’t threatened in this tournament as much as I would have liked. But I’ve won the Scottish Open and played well at Dunhill Links and played well on these type of golf courses.
‘So I’ve come in here as confident as I could be, to be honest with you.’
Credit: European Tour
