Midway through the final round of The Masters, it truly felt like Justin Rose’s year.
The Englishman, who has three runner-up finishes at The Masters during his storied career, led the tournament by two as he made the turn, but a series of mistakes on the second nine meant it was another heartbreaking near miss.
Rose completely lost his momentum midway through the round as he became the favorite to win the tournament, which is something we have seen countless times at this tournament.
Golf analyst Dan Rapaport claimed to have noticed something from Rose during his final round that showed him he wasn’t going to win.
What Justin Rose did during his final round showed he wasn’t going to win The Masters
Rose looked to be a completely different golfer when he made the turn to Amen Corner. He bogeyed the 11th hole after a wayward approach, then he duffed a chip on 12 to cost him another stroke.
But Rapaport claimed the first signs of his downfall came sooner than that. Speaking on Dan on Golf, he said, “Justin Rose and Augusta National, golf’s most toxic relationship this side of Keegan [Bradley] and the Ryder Cup. He keeps putting himself in position, he keeps doing everything right, and it keeps not happening.
“I thought yesterday was the day. It got off to a magical start. On Sunday, it’s binary, right? The ball either goes in the hole, or it doesn’t. The ball went in the hole for him. He chipped in on one. He holes a bomb for birdie on the brutally difficult fifth hole. You’re thinking he just stole two shots there.
“A slice from the trees to tap in range on seven. And then when he birdied the par five eighth, I really thought it was going to be his year. But I will say, he looked a bit antsy in the middle of the round.
“He was talking to his caddie a lot. I remember he was saying on 10, he was like, ‘this feels like a lot of club.” The caddie is like, ‘it’s the right one, it’s the right one.’ 12, he flubbed a chip, and you can tell he kind of stopped after he flubbed that chip.
“It almost felt like he knew the gravity of the moment, and things were slipping away. He’s a class act, though, spoke at length after yet another almost at Augusta. That’s now a third-place finish to go with his three runner-ups at The Masters.”
Justin Rose explains his chip on the 12th hole of The Masters
Rose’s duffed chip on the 12th hole is most likely the shot he wants back the most. It was an uncharacteristic mistake from the usually steady Englishman.
He said his ball settled next to a pine cone, which completely changed how he played the shot.
Speaking after his round, Rose said, “You get on the 12th tee, you’ve got to be 100% in the moment on this hole. That hole is never easy. Landed two yards too far and kind of put me in a funny spot where I had a pine cone right next to my ball that I wanted to move.
“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. That wasn’t ideal in that moment either. Probably could have putted that one.
“But there was a lot of the fringe to go through, so those are the unexpected things that happen in the moment that you’re always having to adapt to.”
It’s one that he would like to have back, but it’s hard to make those decisions in the moment under that amount of pressure. You wouldn’t bet against him being in the mix again next year, so hopefully he can learn from that.
