Justin Rose: How I won The US Open

Published:

1. Accepting my punishment
“The par-4 holes were crucial. If you got out off line from the tee, the par 4s were second shot holes and if you were out of position, you could then, if you got greedy, get into real trouble and drop shots. One thing I tried to do at Merion was if the course offered me a bogey, I took bogey. I don’t think I made a double bogey all week. And that’s probably a large reason why I was able to shoot 281 and be good enough to win.”

2. An instant response to losing the lead
“I’d felt when I was going down the 11th that I was in control of the tournament, then I three-putted the 11th and then heard the roars at the 10th. I knew it had to be an eagle for Phil (Mickelson). So it was definitely a momentum stopper. But I immediately answered with birdie, birdie on the 12th and 13th and it changed again. That was huge because it just gave me that little bit of wiggle room playing the last five holes. I knew no one was going to play the last five perfectly. You needed to have that little bit of a cushion.”

3. Hitting that 4-iron to the 18th green
“I saw my drive sitting perfectly near the plaque from where Ben Hogan hit his 1-iron in 1950. That’s an image all of us have grown up seeing. It was my turn to have that iconic moment. I worked really hard on my rhythm and trusted my swing as you can often get a little bit quick under pressure. Then you just close your eyes, make a swing and hope to see it going down the fairway. I put enough of a good swing on it where Hogan might have thought it was a decent shot too, but it crawled through to the back edge. I took the gamble with the 3‑wood, treated it like a putt and was happy to get out of there with my four.”

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