Friday 21 September 2018 06:30, UK
Justin Rose believes his birdie-birdie finish to his opening 66 at the Tour Championship was just reward for his "fantastic" play on day one at East Lake.
Making his first competitive start as world No 1, Rose admitted he was frustrated at being only two under par with just two holes remaining after he offset four birdies - including three in a row around the turn - with a pair of three-putt bogeys.
But the in-form Englishman rolled in a 20-foot putt for birdie on the penultimate green, and a delightful up-and-down from a greenside bunker at the par-five last set up a closing birdie and lifted him to within a shot of leaders Tiger Woods and Rickie Fowler.
Rose arrived in Atlanta ranked second in the FedExCup standings behind Bryson DeChambeau, but the 38-year-old is now projected to top the standings after the young American stumbled to a 71, although he did recover from an outward 39 featuring two double-bogeys with three birdies after the turn.
"I'm really happy with my round today, and I think I played fantastically, if I'm honest," said Rose afterwards. "I drove the ball unbelievably well today, which obviously sets up the opportunity to score well.
"With a couple of holes to play, I was a little frustrated I hadn't got more out of my round, because I felt like it was a day that I could have gone low. I felt like I putted okay, but there were a few opportunities on the greens that I would have liked to have taken advantage of.
"But the birdie-birdie finish made me feel like I got enough out of the day to make me happy.
"The only thing I struggled with today, I feel like the ball sits up so much in these fairways, and with my wedge play, the ball was going a long way out there, and that's just what I didn't quite trust with a few wedge shots today.
"So I'm going to go work on that on the range a little bit. I think maybe because I thought it was going to go further, I didn't commit to a couple wedge shots which ultimately cost me on a couple of occasions, but certainly 17, where I managed to hit a poor wedge, I managed to make a putt, so that kind of cancelled it out."
Rose also admitted he used his world No 1 ranking as inspiration to get over his frustration, and he insisted he was not distracted by his new status as the best player on the planet.
He added: "When you think about it, it's cool. But I got into the zone today pretty quickly, and obviously I did my job, which means that obviously I didn't let it kind of get in my head too much today.
"But a couple times when I started to feel frustrated, I tried to use it as inspiration."
