Thursday 19 September 2019 19:36, UK
Justin Rose admitted he was "lucky" to avoid serious injury after he defied a painful knee to fire an opening 67 at the BMW PGA Championship.
Rose went into tournament without playing a practice round or Wednesday's Pro-Am after revealing on Tuesday that he had slipped and hurt his left knee a week ago, and he feared he would be sidelined for a lengthy period of time.
But a scan on Monday cleared the world No 3 of any serious problem, and he was able to take his place on the first tee after a good practice session on the range although he did admit that walking the West Course was an issue.
Rose, twice a runner-up in the event, carded six birdies and just one bogey at the ninth, and he said afterwards that avoiding too much damage in his knee had spurred him on to play well.
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"It's a little tender, but I can get through the ball, and I can hit and I can swing, which is obviously almost all you need to do, said Rose, who birdied two of the last three holes to get within two shots of early leader Matt Wallace. I've got to make sure I walk as properly as possible. By limping, your hip starts to hurt and your back starts tightening up.
"I just slipped on a wet surface last week, and my knee got caught and as I went forward, my knee didn't, and yeah, so it was one of those moments that could have been bad, but I got away with it, so I feel very lucky.
"I went for a scan and I didn't know if I had torn my meniscus or ACL. It could have been a whole myriad of things, because it's been not great, really. There's no ligament strain, so it's just some bruising or whatever. It's a situation where just toughen up and get on with it.
"It's a great start. Hopefully I can get stronger and feel a little bit looser, easier, every day between now and obviously I'm almost looking at it as a two-week project between now and the end of the Dunhill Links.
"But obviously when you go ahead and score like that, you know that you can go out and compete, so it's great."
