Justin Rose insisted he had “no regrets” after suffering a second agonising Masters play-off defeat.
Eight years after losing out to Sergio Garcia at Augusta National, Rose was beaten on the first extra hole by Rory McIlroy, who holed from short range for birdie after Rose’s attempt had narrowly missed.
“It hurts,” admitted Rose, whose 10th birdie of the day on the 18th hole in regulation had completed a superb closing 66.
“What are you going to do about it, though? I think I’ve already kicked on in my career when I finished second to Sergio here, played some of the best golf of my career, got to world number one.
“What do you choose to dwell on, you know what I mean? There’s no point in being too despondent about it and you look at all the good stuff that got me into this situation.
“You can’t skip through a career without a little bit of heartache. It’s not going to happen. If you’re willing to lift the big championships, you’ve to put yourself on the line.
“You have to risk feeling this way to get the reverse. It nets out.
“For me, it’s just about fulfilling my childhood dreams, really, and giving everything I’ve got and no regrets.
“I think that’s what it’s all about for me is just trying to look under every stone, push myself as hard as I can to be the best I can be, and I think that’s what being professional is.”
RUNNER UP
Rose also finished runner-up to Xander Schauffele in the Open Championship at Royal Troon last year and remains determined to compete at the highest levels at the age of 44.
“It doesn’t get any easier for sure,” Rose added. “I think as you go through your career, you kind of think, ‘oh, well, hopefully experience kicks in and certain things become easier’.
“But no, I feel like I’m having to be more disciplined and make more sacrifices now than I ever have. That, I would say, is what I’m trying to do. I’m willing to put in that work.
“The reason I’m willing to put in that work is for these occasions, these moments. Standing ovation on 18 when I finished, I took a moment, not knowing the result, but just soaking that in.
“That was obviously a nice moment because it was still what might be, what could be, but you’re still living the dream.
“Like one day, I won’t be competing this way at this tournament. So you know, for now, the hard work is totally worth it, to get these little moments, they are very special.”
One minor consolation for Rose is that his performance at Augusta has lifted him into the automatic qualifying places for this year’s Ryder Cup at Bethpage, where Europe will aim to retain the trophy Rose and McIlroy helped win in Rome in 2023.
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