SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) — Justin Rose is still stuck on the one major title he won at the U.S. Open in 2013.
He has had some good chances to add another in the 13 years since, most notably when he was runner-up last year at the Masters after Rory McIlroy beat him in a playoff to complete the career Grand Slam.
Multiple major titles elevate players into another category with the way they are viewed, as Rose is aware, but he isn't sure it would do much
for him. With an Olympic gold medal and the No. 1 ranking among his other achievements in the game, he thinks he's already there.
“Yeah, multiple major champion is better than a major champion. Multiple of anything that I’ve achieved in my career, I would love more of what I’ve done," Rose said Wednesday. "I’m very grateful for the things I’ve achieved. I’d love more of it all, but yeah, I don’t think it changes my career.”
Rose won gold in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, becoming golf's first Olympic champion in 112 years. Two years later, he won the FedEx Cup title and in 2019 rose to No. 1 in the world. The 45-year-old from England has won more than $78 million and is still going strong, with a seven-shot victory this year at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines and a tie for third at the Masters.
So in one sense, Rose's legacy is secure no matter what happens this week at Shinnecock Hills — where a win would make him the oldest U.S. Open champion — or in any other major he plays. He feels no pressure to prove anything more, except to himself.
“It will change my career in the sense that I prove to myself over, again, another big gap that it would be like winning — the challenge of winning another one would be like winning for the first time, I think,” Rose said. "Just having pushed myself to sort of find that level.
“You need to push yourself to find that level in the first instance, and I think where I’m at in my career now, pushing myself to find that final kind of level again to win another one would be a lot of self-satisfaction. I don’t think it necessarily, massively changes my standing in the game.”
When Rose tied for fourth in the 1998 British Open as an amateur at age 17, major titles would have been easy to predict. He didn't actually get one until the title at Merion in 2013, and multiple chances to grab another slipped away. Sergio Garcia got him in a playoff at the Masters in 2017 before McIlroy did it again last year after Rose made 10 birdies in a final-round 66 to put himself in position to wear the green jacket.
He was runner-up at the 2024 British Open and there have been plenty of other top-10 finishes, including when the U.S. Open was last at Shinnecock in 2018. He also tied for 10th this year at the PGA Championship and believes in the work he has done as he targets the biggest events in the latter stages of his career.
“I try to make sure I’m getting my recovery right and trying to make sure I’m getting my preparation cycles right to play well in the big events,” Rose said. “I potentially sacrifice a few things along the way to try to make that happen. Obviously that’s a very hard thing to do, is to kind of peak on demand, but you’ve got to give it a go, right?”
Rose missed the cut last week in Canada but didn't feel he played poorly. And, he added, it left him a little more refreshed for the start of a major, which is where his focus is at this stage.
“They’re the events that grab my attention. They’re the events that are going to change my career,” he said. “They’re the events that I’ve sort of been getting up for and playing well in, so I’m excited.”
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