Justin Rose inspired for Ryder Cup by memories of his Medinah miracle

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2014/sep/24/justin-rose-ryder-cup-medinah

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Justin Rose has more cause than most to cherish what is to come at Gleneagles this week. At 34, the Englishman has featured in two clashes with the USA but not one as a home player. He played for Europe in a comprehensive 2008 loss at Valhalla and four years later at Medinah, where a dramatic singles victory over Phil Mickelson proved so influential in a stunning team recovery.

“I’ve been around a long time so it’s nice to get that one out of the way,” says Rose of finally securing Ryder Cup home comforts. “I’d imagine Celtic Manor in 2010 was somewhat of a disappointing Ryder Cup; the way the weather was and the way the matches went, and going into a Monday. So I think Gleneagles will be a really great Ryder Cup to experience as my first one at home.”

Rose can testify to this event not always proving a friendly affair. He was one of the European players to be heckled at Medinah, along with his close friend, Ian Poulter. Rose had encountered similar treatment on his Ryder Cup debut. “It’s not always friendly outside the ropes at the Ryder Cup,” he explains. “Chicago was a tough, rough sports crowd, but there were definitely some occasions when it was ‘woah, too far.’

“It just makes it all the more enjoyable when it works out the way it did there. You really want to hear your crowd and, to be honest, on the Sunday when it went quiet it was a case of saying ‘the silence was deafening for them.’ When the place went quiet it was an eerie type of atmosphere.

“Hopefully we can avoid that this week. The crowd do play a big part. I was on the receiving end of a crowd at Valhalla, as well. They were fantastic for the home team, Paul Azinger made them the 13th man and that was important. Paul McGinley will be recruiting the crowd to be as much on our side as possible.”

If Rose’s Medinah Sunday was the stuff of dreams, he acknowledges the opposite applies to what came before. “I have experienced six days of Ryder Cup golf and five of them have been pretty bleak,” says the 2013 US Open champion. “The way things turned around at Medinah was phenomenal.

“To be part of a winning team was something I had undervalued. It was an incredible experience and something I want to make sure we do again this time around.”

Still, Rose had to watch a television replay of that triumph over Mickelson to fully appreciate its significance. “The only thing I really remember is telling myself to stay aggressive, that I needed to deliver a full point,” Rose recalls. “Even at one down with two to play I was saying: ‘You have to win this match, you have to win this match.’

“Sometimes you would feel ‘just get a half out of this, no damage done’, but the situation that we were in meant you had to get everything out of it. It really was amazing how it all played out.”

It would be a surprise if Rose and Poulter aren’t paired together at least once in this, the 40th Ryder Cup. Rose is among those best placed to assess Poulter’s almost super-human attachment to facing the Americans.

“On tour he gets in, gets out and does his business,” says Rose of Poulter. “But in the Ryder Cup he’s definitely vocal and will be talking to everyone. That’s the thing about Poulter; he’s not scared to be the leader in that environment. A lot of guys, although they think they have got good things to say, might just hold back and be introverted. That’s certainly not Poults.

“That’s what makes him such a good team-room guy, he’s not scared to speak his mind. He now has some great experience and with his record, he’s even more confident to say what he feels.”

Despite a relative lack of Ryder Cup experience, Rose’s own position in the European set-up has been strengthened by a major championship success and consistent placement with the world’s top 10 golfers.

“I don’t believe there should be a hierarchy in a team room,” says Rose. “I think you want to be a collective force but I also think the captain will also put a lot faith in me. He’ll expect me to go out there and do a good job. I’m comfortable with that, you have to be. It is not easy because you have seen guys like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, who don’t have particularly amazing [Ryder Cup] records, relative to how good they are individually or in major championships.

“Ryder Cup is an interesting thing. It is the team who gets the momentum, the team who gels and the team who has the great natural pairings, I think.”