McIlroy should relish attention, says Rose

JUSTIN ROSE believes Rory McIlroy should relish the hype which will accompany him throughout this week’s British Open.

His manager Chubby Chandler fears “it will be madness” at Royal St George’s as the 22-year-old attempts to become the youngest winner of the Claret Jug since 1893, so much so that McIlroy practised on the course last week two days earlier than advised to keep out of the media spotlight.

Rose had a taste of such attention after finishing fourth in the Open as a 17-year-old amateur in 1998, with every subsequent missed cut as a professional — 21 in a row — recorded for posterity.

But the 30-year-old feels McIlroy is better placed to handle all the attention than he was and should treat it as an opportunity, not a burden.

“It’s a great opportunity,” Rose said yesterday. “To be coping with that means you have already achieved great things. It’s a challenge to relish.

“I was not a seasoned great player. I did not have the skills to rely on that Rory does. He has done it for quite a long time now, he is much better equipped to cope than I was.”

Rose will also hope he himself is better equipped to cope with Sandwich than he was eight years ago, when rounds of 79 and 80 saw him miss the cut by a distance.

“I hope so. I have really been looking forward to coming back,” Rose joked. “I really enjoyed my practice round today. I think the winning total will be under par, but I think you will need to earn your score. There’s a lot of trouble. If you get aggressive in the wrong places you are going to make bogeys. You have to make a lot of putts from 30ft because it’s tough to get it close.”

Despite that fourth place-finish in 1998, Rose does not have a particularly good British Open record, missing the cut at St Andrews last year.