Thursday 11 October 2018 15:45, UK
Justin Rose refused to blame illness for his disappointing two-over-par 74 in the opening round of the Sky Sports British Masters.
The tournament host was forced to cancel his pre-tournament media commitments at Walton Heath on Wednesday as he has been struggling with a stomach bug this week.
He remained confident he would be fit to tee-off on Thursday, though, and he duly turned up for his 8.20am start on the 10th tee.
Rose played his first eight holes in level par after a bogey at the 13th and a birdie at the 15th, but he then recorded four successive bogeys from the 18th to tumble down the leaderboard to just one shot off last place.
The world No 2, who needs a top-two finish on Sunday to return to the top of the rankings, rallied with a hat-trick of birdies from the fourth, but another bogey at the eighth left him with some work to do on Friday if he is to survive the halfway cut.
"I felt fine, surprisingly good, so there are no excuses," Rose said. "When I got to four over I just set a mini-goal of getting back to even by the end of Friday because I felt that would keep me in the tournament.
"I had a good chance to make four birdies in a row but missed that and just gave away too many cheap bogeys."
Rose admitted he had been under-prepared due to a combination of his illness and his other duties as tournament host, but he still hopes to make an impact over the next three days.
"I feel like I'm bouncing back now, but hopefully it's not too late," he added.
"Obviously in order to play well in a tournament, a lot has got to happen. It takes preparation on the front end. I've definitely been behind on the preparation side, but I knew shooting 74 on the first day clearly is not the start I was looking for.
"Hopefully I can at least play for pride certainly the rest of the week and see what I can get out of it.
"But I'm really enjoying the golf course. This is why I wanted to play here. Even though it was a struggle for me today, that's what I loved about this course is that every part of your game needs to be working well.
"I feel like this course will force me into getting my game going well."
Watch the Sky Sports British Masters throughout the week live on Sky Sports!
