Justin Rose is a golfer who is getting a lot of attention this year. After a great performance at the Masters, the experienced Englishman was the main topic in the media. As a former world number 1, Rose has shown countless times that he deserves to belong in the company of the best.
However, there were many questions about his future and his eventual appearance at the Ryder Cup. His great form this season secured him a place in the prestigious competition, especially after winning the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
In an interview with the media before the start of the BMW Championship, Rose reflected on the talks with the captain of the European team, Luke Donald. Donald made it clear to him that he must show quality and be a dominant figure in order to secure his place in the team.
"No, that's fair. I think I felt very comfortable with the conversations that I had with Luke and his team that they want — their preference was for me to be on the team. I just needed to kind of give them some decent evidence to sort of get me on the team. Whether that meant I needed to finish in the top 12 for a pick or the top 15 or just be relevant in the conversation, I felt like that was the brief that I was given, and I felt like that was really fair because obviously I think I think I do balance the team on one end and you always have the youngsters coming through. A good team always has a nice mix of different types of characters and people on it.
From that point of view, I felt like I knew what my job was. I haven't been putting myself under a lot of pressure really because of that to make the team because I felt like playing a little bit better in Scotland and The Open Championship was sort of enough to make sure they knew my game was still right there, and they have confidence that I can sort of pull it together when required hopefully.
Yeah, certainly to be — from personal pride, to make it without a pick is huge. I've only ever been picked once for the Ryder Cup, and that was last time round. So it's nice to not have to rely on that. It's obviously getting harder to make with six guys. So a lot of pride in making the team at this point.."- he said.
A combination of youth and experience
If you want to succeed in a competition like the Ryder Cup, it is important that you have a combination of youth and experience. Having such an experienced golfer on the roster is a big deal, and Rose could certainly help the Europeans achieve great success.
Although Luke Donald has not always focused his attention on some of the golfers, nor specifically talked about any of them, he is aware that Rose could play a key role in the upcoming Ryder Cup.
The public in Europe has focused its attention on Rory McIlroy, the main figure of the European team, but it is clear that young golfers, as well as golfers like Rose, have a significant role to play.
Whether Europe can make a big step on away soil is still not clear. But this year's Ryder Cup could bring the needed excitement factor, which we may have lacked in some of the previous editions.
