AUGUSTA, Ga. — Justin Rose starts his walk down the back of Augusta National’s 17th green. Then he looks up.
Looking back here would feel as if he were looking directly into the setting sun behind him. Seconds ago, a faint Masters chance was snuffed out after a 3-footer for par slid past the hole’s right side, dropping him three strokes behind eventual winner Rory McIlroy and leaving him wondering what the hell just happened. His Sunday afternoon at Augusta National had started with such hope. He birdied 5. Then 7. Then 8. Then 9. He led by two with only nine to go.
Surely this wouldn’t end up as it did at the 2015 Masters, when Jordan Spieth stormed through Augusta and Rose finished runner-up; or the 2017 Masters, when Rose lost in a playoff to Sergio Garcia; or last year, when Rose fell in a playoff again, this time to McIlroy. Always second. Never a green jacket wearer.
“Yeah, again, I feel like if there was anyone that is deserving of a green jacket,” pro Tyrrell Hatton said, “it probably would be Rosey. …
“It looks like he’s going to come up just a hair short again.”
Three errors across Amen Corner’s three holes did him in. On the par-4 11th, from the center of the fairway and 192 yards out, Rose’s second shot sailed 40 yards right of the green, he bogeyed, and he dropped into a share of the lead. There, he said, he took too much club, and the wind confused him. A hole later, at the par-3 12th, Rose chunked a chip from over the green, he bogeyed again, and he no longer led. There, a pinecone next to his ball troubled him. “It kind of made me try to chip in a bit of a different way because I had to kind of use the toe of the club and hit a bit of a hook chip,” Rose said. “That wasn’t ideal in that moment, either.” Then, on the par-5 13th, he was 30 feet past the cup in two shots following a bold iron from the left side of the fairway, only to three-putt and par. There, he said he was overly aggressive with his first putt — it went 8 feet past — and his deficit was now two after a McIlroy birdie back on 12.
“I was right in position,” Rose said.
Earlier in the afternoon, Rose had received the ask-pros-about-another-pro treatment, given to on-the-cusp-of-victory players. The run of birdies put him in that spot, which included his birdie on 7, where he finessed an iron from the pine straw on the right side of the fairway to a foot of the hole. Rose is a well-respected pro, but a second major by the Englishman would have moved him into a different tier. Fellow 45-year-old Adam Scott called him intense and calculated. Max Homa said Rose inspired him.
“I think when I was growing up, my muses were the Tigers and the Phils and those guys, Rory, Rickie, all the guys kind of before me that were top in the world,” Homa said. “Not to say they’re not, but I’ve definitely taken more of a liking to watching people like Adam Scott, Billy Horschel and Justin Rose. Their work ethic is incredible and they have sustained such excellence for so long. … Myself, I have never reached the mountaintop, but I plan on doing this competitively for a while. It’s nice to see that it’s a possibility, especially with kind of the ups and downs I’ve had. I’ve really looked to them and admired a lot of what they’ve done, more so in the last couple years, just looking at, again, how they continue to do this.
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“It’s difficult. You’re tired and you have a lot of scar tissue, but those three guys are amazing.”
After the par on 12, Rose never got closer than two strokes of McIlroy. He birdied 15, but then came the 3-foot miss on 17. From there, he started his walk down the back of Augusta National’s 17th green.
Then he looked up.
To the left and right of the walkway to the 18th tee were several kids.
Everyone got a fist bump — a lost lead and another lost Masters opportunity be damned.
How folks will judge Rose will come soon, if not already. Will the ledger show that he’s finished second all those times, or finished non-first? Of course, he’ll also be back next year, and vets have shown they can compete at the Masters; 40 years ago, Jack Nicklaus won at Augusta.
But maybe the patrons’ reaction on Sunday on 18 can help answer the question now.
Rose heard cheers.
Afterward, a reporter wondered why he thought he did.
“I think people just know I play hard,” Rose said. “I try hard. I’ve been close.
“You know, yeah, I think they just appreciate the effort I guess, yeah.”
