JUSTIN ROSE
BET you can ' t name the winner of The Open at Birkdale in 1998 . But try casting your mind back to the 18th hole and the image of a gangly 17-year-old , up to his ankles in rough , playing a shot that landed on the green , bounced a couple of times and disappeared into the hole .
His name ? Justin Rose , of course . For the record , Mark O ' Meara was the manwho won the Claret Jug .
But Rose was the boy who stole everybody ' s heart , and not just because of that shot . He had stubbornly remained in contention for all four days , refusing to buckle under what must have been unbelievable pressure . A star was surely born .
The day after The Open , he announced that he was turning professional . A few people wondered if it wasn ' t too soon but surely somebody who had finished fourth in The Open would be just fine .
Of course , as we all know now , he wasn ' t fine . Anything but . There was huge interest in him , with the press turning up en masse for his first few events , but as he missed one cut after another , the interest soon waned .
Rose would go on to miss 21 successive cuts . Just think about that – 21weeks when he didn ' t earn a penny in prize money , 21 weeks when even he began to question whether he really belonged out there on the European Tour , 21 weeks away from family and friends , wondering whether he would ever make the cut .
And then , finally , he did . There was little fanfare because the British media had by now moved on . Justin who ?
But those of us who had watched him at Birkdale knew that he possessed a special talent . It was a talent that endured
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While Woods may remain a work in progress , despite his four wins this year , Rose is very much the finished article . His swing is to die for .
throughout those miserable weeks and months .
Many teenagers would have started throwing tantrums . Not Rose . His father , Ken , was a huge influence on his life . For week after week of Justin ' s professional career Ken would either caddy for Justin or walk outside the ropes keeping his son ' s statistics . He was a quiet , stoical presence , a rock for his son .
They would share a room , eat meals together , spend entire days in each other ' s company and Ken ' s presence was a subject for criticism from others who wanted Justin to learn to do things on his own . The time when Justin needed Ken most came when the son emerged from the scorer ' s tent each Friday evening , having failed to qualify for the last two rounds and having to confront the journalists who could not understand why this promising young man was having such a wretched run . read more
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