The climb to the third green at Augusta National is awfully steep and, contrary to results and rumour, Justin Rose isn’t getting any younger.
As he navigated his practice round here on Monday, ahead of his 21st Masters, the challenges of that gradient became apparent by his ever-shortening strides.
It was a slog, to the extent that his playing partner Chris Gotterup, 19 years Rose’s junior, emerged from behind and overtook him up the hill, which served as a cue for one cigar-chomper in the gallery to offer some encouragement: ‘Come on Justin, nearly there, bud.’
Nearly there. It’s quite fitting, really, for this nearest of nearly men; a golfer who has found himself in the runner-up spot three times in the past 11 years at Augusta, twice via the unique agonies of a play-off.
He’ll be 46 in July, Rose. His back creaks and needs icing each day. But the wonder of his work is that we don’t talk about ticking clocks, diminishing returns or rolled cars on suburban streets.
No, when we talk about Rose, we do so in astonishment of a career that seemed dead a few seasons ago, only for the resurrection that has repeatedly carried him close to a second major title, well over a decade since the first.
Justin Rose is ready for his 21st crack at the Masters and goes in ranked ninth in the world
Ranked ninth in the world, no one else in the top 10 was born within nine years of him, and when he won on the PGA Tour two months ago, no one in an elite field got within seven strokes, either.
But can he finally get it done at the Masters?
We used to ask that of Rory McIlroy, but with his win over Rose on the 73rd hole here in 2025, it has passed to the guy he beat. And who wouldn’t want to see that happen? Who could watch the grace with which he embraced McIlroy in defeat and not will him to go one better?
For the man himself, there is no disguising the depth of his ambition in these parts. Of his longing for what he previously described to me as one of those ‘full-circle moments’ and his conviction from recent visits that it is possible.
‘I feel like I’ve pretty much done what it takes to win but I just haven’t walked over the line,’ he told us on Monday evening. ‘I feel like I’ve executed well enough to have done the job. From that point of view, I don’t feel like I have to find something different. I truly believe that.’
In the next breath, he added something subtly relevant: ‘I don’t feel like Augusta owes me anything. I come here with a good attitude.’
Golf is nothing if not an exercise in psychological control. Of accepting bad swings and reframing focus towards the next shot. Rose’s superpower, above anything else, has been in that area, same as Scottie Scheffler. It doesn’t always make for bombastic quotes, but as a trick of the mind it does add up to good scoring.
Rose’s reaction to Rory McIlroy’s play-off win last year was the epitome of grace in defeat
And yet it would be a mistake to downplay the fire driving him. Hemingway favoured marlin fishing for his study of human infatuations, but The Old Man and the Tee would be a reasonable working title for the story of Rose’s hunt for a green jacket. Except he deliberately avoids seeing it as an obsession.
‘I’d say firmly in the desire camp, just because I know that the latter (an obsession) is not going to help me,’ he said. ‘It’s probably professional discipline just to keep it in the desire realm. It probably wouldn’t be fruitful to go down the other path.’
And he’d probably be right. But it was no less telling how he corrected a subsequent observation about his name appearing twice on various honours boards on-site, owing to his play-off defeats in 2017 and 2025.
‘I actually think it’s on the main trophy in the clubhouse three times. When I finished second to Jordan Spieth in 2015, it’s on there, I believe.’
From there, a mask slipped slightly when he said he can still feel ‘mad’ about the third round last year. Loose putts in that round have evidently survived his filtration process.
But here he is again, ranked by no less an authority than Butch Harmon as the third favourite. Augusta always favours experience and Rose has a tonne of it. Most of it very good. It would be a story for the ages if it comes to pass.
