Justin Rose finally makes it to St. Andrews

From St. Andrews, Scotland

Two months ago, St. Andrews appeared liable to remain Justin Rose’s “Bogey Open.”

The English pro has competed on six of the nine venues on the British Open rotation, but never at St. Andrews — where he was unable to qualify in both 2000 and ’05. “To me, it’s the Open to play,” Rose said.

Now he’s not only in the field, but two wins in his past three starts have moved the affable Rose to a position among the favorites as the 139th Open tees off Thursday on the venerable — and this week, soggy — Old Course.

“Confidence comes with good play, and there’s certainly been some of that recently for me to enjoy,” Rose said Wednesday, cutting short his final practice round after six holes.

No one has had a more confidence-inspiring Open buildup than Rose. It began at the Memorial Tournament, where he chased down Rickie Fowler for his long-awaited first PGA Tour victory.

Two weeks later, he took the lead into the final day at Hartford before unraveling. Seemingly unscarred, he ran up a four-shot advantage after three rounds at the AT&T National and this time closed the door.

“The way he’s handled these last two victories have been really impressive,” said Nick Faldo, the Open’s last English champion in 1990. “The fact he played like that only one week before this, he’s got to be feeling pretty darned good.”

Maybe all it took was a little mental reorganization.

“I saw this happening very quickly,” said Dr. Gio Valiante, the mental coach who has been working with Rose.

Valiante, who works with several PGA Tour pros, picked up his newest client in May. Rose had just missed the cut at the Players Championship and couldn’t figure out why the swing he displayed on the range didn’t always make it to the tee.

After just one session, Valiante called his father. “I just picked up Justin Rose,” he told him, “and I guarantee I can get him to win before the end of the year.”

That turned out to be a conservative estimate.

Rose never lacked for talent — he finished fourth at the 1998 Open at Birkdale as a 17-year-old amateur, and won the European Tour’s money title three years ago. But over time, he’d built up internal pressure trying to keep up with the current rise of British pros.

It didn’t take long after they started working together for Valiante to ask Rose why he plays the game.

“When I asked Justin the question, he had this blank look on his face,” Valiante recalled. “If you don’t understand your motivation, you have no foundation.”

Rose needed to remove the external baggage. His physical talent would take care of the rest.

“Obviously, it was just the little nudge I needed in the right direction,” Rose said. “Gio certainly has helped me get back to basics.”

A major, though, brings a far bigger test of keeping oneself unburdened. And after Rose’s experiences the last two times the Open was at St. Andrews, he wouldn’t be blamed for building things up.

In 2000, he was in the throes of a slump that saw him miss 21 consecutive cuts right after turning pro. Then in 2005, he was on the range as first alternate only to see all 156 men take their appointed tee times.

Nor did things look any better this year when he wasn’t in the world’s top 50 by the Open’s cutoff date for exemptions. He failed to qualify for the U.S. Open after his Memorial victory. And his schedule left him shut out of British Open qualifiers.

The two wins finally got Rose in. And he will play the first two rounds with Tiger Woods and Camilo Villegas.

“I think an Open Championship at St. Andrews is the iconic tournament,” he said, “and it doesn’t get any bigger than this for a British player.”

jshain@orlandosentinel.com.