Justin Rose is one of the best players of his generation. He reached No. 1 in the world, won the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion and has played in six Ryder Cups for Europe. Rose has had a fantastic career, but it’s one that is, as it currently stands, defined by the “what ifs.”
The Englishman has finished runner-up in the Masters three times, including April’s playoff loss to Rory McIlroy. He has finished in second place at the Open Championship twice, with last summer’s T2 finish at Royal Troon just short of Xander Schauffele.
With his 45th birthday just two weeks away, the near misses for Rose should sting more than they did when he was still in his prime — when he could barely notice the sun was starting to descend and the shadows were getting longer. The heartbreak delivered at age 44 should leave deep scars because the road in front of him is much shorter than it has ever been. Every time Rose lets one slip through his grasp now, the question of whether or not that was his last best chance understandably bubbles to the surface.
And yet, the past 12 months have not left Rose downtrodden about legacy-defining wins that didn’t materialize. Instead, Schauffele pulling away from him late at Troon and McIlroy delivering two immaculate swings to take the green jacket off his shoulders left him with a different message.
“It’s been a weird one because I don’t really feel like I had to get over it because I didn’t necessarily feel completely devastated by it either,” Rose said of his Masters loss on Wednesday at Royal Portrush ahead of the 2025 Open Championship. “Do you know what I mean? I felt like I played well. I felt like I could walk away with my head held high. So from that point of view, I didn’t really feel like there was much baggage or much to get over. … I’m ready to move on for sure because second is second place, isn’t it? It’s a tough loss. But at the same time, it’s still more evidence that when I get things right, I’m still competitive and can still bring it. That’s where I’m encouraged about, and I’ve got to make sure those moments like this week and going forward, I can try to be as focused as I can on the moment now.
“It was definitely, I think, a little bit different this time around,” Rose said, comparing his 2025 Masters loss to 2017. “I felt like I played great on Sunday. I felt like I did a lot of good things. I felt like I chased as hard as I could, left it all out there. So there wasn’t as much of a — there was more pride in the performance, I think. But obviously you’ve got to look inward and understand, is there anything I could have done better in the moment? But really, I hit two great shots into 18 myself, and the outcome was what it was.”
Rose’s runner-up finish last summer at Royal Troon came after he gutted through Final Open Qualifying to get into the field. He battled through tough conditions and found himself one shot back of 54-hole leader Billy Horschel entering Sunday’s final round. Rose, Horschel and Schauffele battled along the Southern coast of Scotland before Schauffele pulled away on the back nine, shooting a bogey-free 65 to snag the Claret Jug.
For Rose, who shot 67 in that final round, the loss at Troon didn’t leave him filled with disappointment. Instead, it served as affirmation that the work he had been putting in was paying dividends and he still has the game to contend and win at the highest level, even as his hair continues to grey.
“If I look back at Troon, I think I played as good a golf as anybody for the whole entire week,” Rose said. “I think I probably played through some of the tougher conditions in terms of Saturday afternoon was brutal. I got the worst of it there. I really felt I hung in, so it was good resilience, I felt like I showed that week.
“When you step up as a competitor, you’re like, yeah, I had everything available to me to win the tournament. That does kind of keep you believing, you know what I mean, and obviously that gives me a lot of hope coming back into this week and future Opens.”
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Last week at Wimbledon, 38-year-old Novak Djokovic opened a vein after another emphatic loss to World No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the semifinals. A legendary grand slam champion, Djokovic has done the impossible time and time again, including an improbable gold medal at last summer’s Olympic Games in Paris. But age and the limitations it brings hit him after his grass-court loss to Sinner.
“I don’t think it’s bad fortune,” Djokovic said. “It’s just age, the wear and tear of the body. As much as I’m taking care of it, the reality hits me right now, last year and a half, like never before, to be honest. It’s tough for me to accept that because I feel like when I’m fresh, when I’m fit, I can still play really good tennis. I’ve proven that this year. But playing best of five, particularly this year, has been a real struggle for me physically. The longer the tournament goes, the worse the condition gets. I reached the semis of every slam this year, but I have to play Sinner or [Carlos] Alcaraz. These guys are fit, young, sharp. I feel like I’m going into the match with the tank half empty. It’s just not possible to win a match like that.
“It is what it is, you know? It’s one of these things I accept and embrace in some way, deal with the reality the way it is, and try to make the most out of it, I guess.”
Rose can see that. As the sun begins to fade on a long career, the body only has so much left to give — drive can fill the tank, but only so much. With age comes certain barriers that are nearly impossible to break down. Experience and failure make you appreciate the opportunities when they come and understand the gravity of chances lost.
“Obviously, later in your career, you’re never quite sure how many chances are going to be left, and when you do come close, clearly it’s like, ‘ahh.’ Sometimes it hurts a little bit more possibly because you know that it’s not getting any easier, to put it that way, and that’s obviously what Novak is saying as well,” Rose said. “Obviously, he’s still capable. He’s still probably believing that he can find angles and ways to still battle out there and maybe get that one percent in a certain part of his game that might make a difference, and that’s kind of what I believe in terms of what I’m trying to do. I would say overall week in and week out, it’s going to be hard to get a ton better and transform my game to suddenly add new dimensions to it where I can kind of become incredibly dominant over the top young players, but I think in certain situations and in certain environments, I can still kind of bring my best, and when I do do that, yeah, I feel very, very competitive.”
Rose has tasted what it might feel like to win the Masters, watching Garcia and McIlroy best him after playing them to a draw after 72 holes. He has been close to kissing the Claret Jug a few times in his career.
He arrives at Royal Portrush believing he can contend and win a championship that is ingrained in his DNA. But he also knows that while he won’t be surprised if he’s in contention this weekend in Northern Ireland, he needs to get it over the line. You never know when it might be your last chance.
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