Gradually, Rose came out of his shell. He started to win and, though his game would take another violent dip on the death of the father, everything has now come together. Apart from being totally committed to the “Blessings in a Backpack” charity in which his every birdie makes money for hungry children, he has his own lovely family and the optimum golfing team.
The team includes a coach in Sean Foley and a caddie in Mark Fulcher, both of whom bring out the best in him. Foley, he says, has been just as right for him as he has for Tiger.
“What people don’t seem to realise about Tiger,” he volunteered, “is the huge mental knocking he took at the time of his troubles.” He did not proffer an opinion on whether the former world number one would return to his previous heights but he did venture, quietly, that he felt would be a better father to his two children because of the way things had turned out.
Rose and Fulcher, who used to caddie for former LPGA player Alison Nicholas, fall into easy chat in every round, agreeing on some things, not on others. Fulcher, for example, believes they have left it too late to ban the long putter; Rose, on the other hand, says that he, like other short-putter men, would like to see it banished.
“It’s definitely easier for a flat six-footer,” maintains the player, though he added that it would be madness if the R&A and USGA were to be influenced by the fact that the 14-year-old Guan Tianlang was using a long putter as he won the Asia Pacific Amateur.
“Anyone can hole anything at 14,” said Rose, who suspected that his propensity for holing 30-footers and chips at that age had hardly helped to make his older rivals look at him in a more kindly light.
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