On what he calls his third career, Rose is finally reborn

text size

Stan Badz/PGA TOUR

Justin Rose ground out seven consecutive pars to win for the second time in three tournaments.

NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. -- There was a time in Justin Rose's life when he thought weeks like this would be the norm, not the exception. More than a decade after he tied for fourth at the British Open as a 17-year-old amateur and won four times in six months by age 21, they are.

RELATED

Round 4 Wrap-up
Round 4 notebook
FedExCup standings
Results, points
Tiger finishes well back
Video highlights
Kodak Challenge

For the second time in a month, Rose is a winner on the PGA TOUR, capturing the AT&T National with a final-round 70 that gives him two victories in his last three starts. If not for a final-round 75 last week at the Travelers Championship, he would be 3-for-3.

Rose needed that loss in Hartford, though. It made him a better player when he turned up at Aronimink Golf Club and it showed on Sunday in the form of seven straight pars to close when his once four-stroke lead had been cut to one.

"From finishing fourth at the Open I would have expected all this," Rose said. "Then eight months or a year later, it was like, whew, I don't know, can I get back on TOUR? It's been a long, hard road. But I think I have learned more in the tough times."

Those tough times were staggering. Take your pick because there were plenty of them:

• Twenty-one straight missed cuts just after turning pro in 1998, which included nine straight missed cuts and 11 of 13 missed to open the 1999 European Tour season.

• Nine straight missed cuts and 13 of 18 missed to start the 2000 European Tour season.

• A then-course record 8-under 63 in the opening round of the 2003 Deutsche Bank Championship that would be broken later in the week, along with Rose's heart as he finished third.

• The halfway lead at the 2004 Masters before rounds of 81-71 sent him spiraling down the leaderboard. He didn't make it back to Augusta National for three years and played in just one major between 2005 and 2006. Three times -- in 2004, 2007 and 2008 -- Rose led the Masters after the first round.

• A fourth-place finish at the 2004 Memorial tournament presented by Morgan Stanley and a runner-up there in 2008.

• A four-shot lead going into the weekend of the 2005 Buick Championship, where Brad Faxon and Tjaart van der Walt dropped scores of 61 and 64 on him in the final round to speed past him into a playoff.

• Top-12 finishes in all four majors in 2007, which was sort of dubious honor more than a distinct one.

"It felt like every time I had a chance to make a cut, cameras would appear out of the trees and suddenly I would feel the heat," Rose said. "Playing under that pressure to make cuts when you're not playing well, that was hard."

That would have broken the will of most players. Not Rose, who says he felt like he has lived three different careers -- the young kid, the journeyman and the player he wanted to be in the first place.

"It does seem like a lifetime ago," said Rose, who no longer feels burdened by the expectations of others. "It's something you've really got to embrace and enjoy. I guess that's why last weekend, it's not really that big a deal, if I put it in complete perspective.

"In the past I've worried about those sorts of questions. I've worried about where I fit in, how I stack up, what people think, where do they rate me, do they or don't they, and I've got to tell you I'm less worried about that now. That's not what's driving me. How good can I get at this game? That's a personal challenge and a personal quest. That's really all I'm focused on and not really worried about where I stack up to others."

Where Rose stacks up, though, is pretty high. For much of the season, the talk has been about his fellow Brits Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter, both of whom finally got their first wins on TOUR after careers of their own that have been filled with trials and tribulations.

Now it's Rose who is the prince of England and he's OK with that. So much so that when he was asked if was he was completely comfortable with the idea that he's the hottest player on the planet right now, Rose said, "I think it's a fact. I don't look at it any other way."