When the conversation finally switched to Rose’s own feats – he hauled himself into fourth place on the world order in Dubai – he threw in a fascinating little aside. Shortly before he had left for the United Arab Emirates, someone had shown him a clip of old film in which his late father, Ken, was talking to a local TV station about his offspring’s golfing future.
“I was 14 at the time and I’d just made it through to final qualifying at The Open,” Justin began. “What dad was saying was that he felt I had what it takes to be a top-20 player on the European Tour. It was fascinating to see it – and satisfying to think that I’ve exceeded those expectations.”
No top player has known more highs and lows in the intervening years than he has, with particular reference to that extraordinary juxtaposition of events in 1998. That was the year when, as a 17-year-old amateur, he finished in a heady share of fourth place in The Open at Birkdale before promptly missing 21 cuts in a row at the start of his professional career.
“What happened at The Open skewed everything," he recalls. “Months earlier, dad and I had agreed on a three-year plan. He had always said that the best place to learn to be a professional was on the professional tour and I was always going to make the switch after Birkdale.
“But that one week left everyone with ridiculously high expectations. We no longer had any hope of enacting that plan even vaguely under the radar.”
There was a crescendo of negative publicity, much of it saying that he had turned professional too soon.
Looking back, Rose says that he and his father felt like “a couple of outcasts.”
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