Rose Warns Of Shorter Careers Due To Distance Obsession

Talking to James Corrigan about this fall’s Justin Rose Telegraph Junior Golf Championship at Walton Heath, Rose said his back has improved ahead of the Masters and that he could have played the Players and Match Play.

The 2017 runner-up at Augusta is instead going in off a five week break and was asked by Corrigan what he’ll tell the juniors who qualify for his championship.

“If you look at my generation — say me, Adam Scott and Sergio [Garcia] — we are probably the first wave that’s grown up with the fitness and physio side and I kind of feel we're in the sweet spot, the way we approached the game in the last 20 years, focusing on our mobility and flexibility and looking at the big picture. And I think our best golf could well be in front of us, as weird as that is to say with us all in our 40s. 

“Whereas I feel like that the generation coming up behind us is pushing the limit much harder than than we did from a physical point of view and even though science is improving and we are understanding more and more about the body, eventually those aggressive motions have to take their impact.”

This wisdom should be appreciated by the various ageist Tour types…

"If it carries on like this and if everyone coming out here is looking for the power game, then maybe careers will get shorter and there won’t be players in their 40s still able to compete at the top of the sport. 

“Apart from the physical issues that might be suffered, I think that would be a huge shame. Watching Westy [Lee Westwood] and Bryson going at it at Bay Hill [last month] was great because you had a 48-year-old taking on a 27-year-old. That sort of battle between the generations is unique to golf. 

“Westy and what he has done in the last year and a half is a huge inspiration. It’s a great part of what I love about golf. Lee is playing with wisdom and experience and gratitude. They are powerful words, but there is something so noble about it.  That longevity and endless hunger should be celebrated and it is. That is my concern with this drive for length — the professional male game could lose all that.”

Yes but people in their forties are not what the advertisers want Justin! Please, think of the brands!