Thursday 23 January 2020 06:16, UK
Justin Rose is using Roger Federer as his inspiration as he hopes accuracy and course management will be the keys to success in a busy 2020.
Rose concedes he cannot match the power games of many of the younger generation of professional golfers, forcing him to focus on increased precision while avoiding being drawn into trying to find extra distance which could risk another injury.
Federer continues to be a force to be reckoned with in professional tennis despite being 38 years of age, relying on experience, accuracy and game management to retain his place in the world's top three, and Rose is using the Swiss star as his "benchmark".
"I look at Roger Federer, and there are guys that serve at 135mph, but he serves at 121 in the corners," said the 39-year-old, who made an encouraging start to the year as he finished runner-up to Matt Kuchar at last week's Singapore Open.
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"Roger is at the back end of his career, so it's incredibly effective. So yeah, I'm not going to be a 185mph ball speed guy and if I chase that, it is going to hurt me and it's going to hurt my swing and body because you've got to reabsorb that force.
"But I can serve it 121 in the corners is kind of where I'm at. And for me, that's like 172, 175mph ball speed. I carry the ball 300, so if I can carry the ball 300 in the air, I can compete on any golf course against any player. So that's kind of my benchmark."
Rose, who defends his Farmers Insurance Open title at Torrey Pines this week, also revealed he has made changes to his schedule for the year as he bids to peak at the right time for the majors, while he is already looking ahead to his defence of his Olympic crown in Japan as well as the Ryder Cup in September.
"I've just accepted the fact that the majors do come around thick and fast and you've just got to be ready for that block of golf," he added. "I think it's very difficult to peak, valley, peak, valley, peak, valley - which is what I've tried to do for majors in the past.
"I think you now need to just try and give yourself the overall reserves that you can just push through major season and try to keep your game at a high level all weeks and hopefully you hit at the right time.
"That now includes the Olympics. I was looking at the schedule, I'll probably be flying out to Tokyo on the Wednesday or Thursday after The Open Championship, so really there's not much time to breathe. You know, a couple of days at home and then you're off again.
"So I made some changes, and some tournaments have to take a hit because of that, but this year the biggest change I'm making is how I operate at home. I'm trying to really make every day count at home.
"If I have a week off, I'm trying to really structure my days at home to give myself the appropriate amount of work that I need to get done to perform, but then enough quality family time as well.
"So I felt like last year was a bit of a tricky year where I've always felt like I was trying to play catch-up on the road and practice too much on Tour and try to fix things Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays.
"So this year I'm just trying to take care of my weeks off really so I can get to tournaments and actually have easier weeks on the road, which will hopefully keep me fresher."
