Rory McIlroy a live Open contender, says Justin Rose
By Matthew Treadwell
Last Updated: 12/07/16 6:10pm
Justin Rose has advised against writing off Rory McIlroy for a second Open title at Royal Troon this week, despite a disappointing year so far for the world No 4.
McIlroy won The Open in 2014 but has struggled for form this year and a home victory at the Irish Open in May was a first in six months.
A joint-third finish at the WGC-Cadillac Championship is McIlroy's only other notable performance in 2016, but Rose has backed him to come good again.
"Rory is a field player in the sense that you can never count him out," said Rose, "and if you start to criticise him at this stage of the season you could end up with egg on your face because he could go on a run that he could easily win the next six or seven events.
"He is not a player you should worry about. He is talented and he will be fine. I don't look at his form and think 'what's going on with Rory'?
"He popped one off in Ireland which is a tournament that meant so much to him, which is a big victory.
"He's got it when he wants it and that's all you need to see. I'm not seeing a huge drop in form. He is not at his best right now but you can't always be."
Rose is positive about his own game coming into The Open after suffering from back problems earlier in the year.
"It's been a slow summer for me. I came off injury into the US Open, and then Akron last week, just trying to find some form, really," he added.
"Anytime you have a bit of an injury, you're not able to practise quite as much, but I feel like I'm in a much better spot this week.
"I'm at the point where I'm focusing on my performance rather than just trying to get fit. So I feel like it's about the right time for me to start turning in a couple good results and I'm excited about it."
Rose's British compatriot Danny Willett also went before the assembled media on Tuesday and the Masters champion admits he learned a lot from playing with defending champion Zach Johnson at The Open last year.
Willett finished on 11 under par at St Andrews, four shots behind Johnson who went on to win a three-way play-off with Marc Leishman and Louis Oosthuizen.
In particular, Willett was impressed by the American's single-mindedness and self-confidence on his way to winning the Claret Jug.
"Whenever you play with someone and see them win, you look back, regardless of where you finished, to see how they did it," he said.
"Did they do anything special? Is there anything you can take from it that you can change? The one thing that's impressive about Zach is that he never changes his game plan for anyone or any golf course.
"Regardless of who he is playing against, he just does his own thing and he knows that eventually he's going to get a few wedges in his hand and he's going to knock it close or roll a few putts in and that's exactly what he did.
"He stayed incredibly patient all day and waited for a few good chances and took them.
"You have to get fortunate in a few places. Seeing how it unfolded and how he played was a learning experience and good for me to see how it's done on the world's greatest stage."
