Rose profits from Masters pain

Justin Rose has the chance to show this weekend that what happened at the Masters last month has not left lasting scars.

With overnight leader Ernie Els having a rare off-day at Wentworth by his standards, the 24-year-old from Hampshire roared into centre-stage at the Volvo PGA championship with a second round 66.

The European Tour’s flagship event is not a major, but it is a big enough stage and the chasing pack is of sufficient quality for Rose to test himself again in the heat of battle.

After a 71 rescued by two closing birdies, Els is two behind along with Ryder Cup trio Darren Clarke, Phillip Price and Joakim Haeggman, while late in the day Welshman Stephen Dodd was on the same mark with seven to play – three of them par fives – and David Gilford eight under with four to go.

Nearly two years on from his last victory Rose led on the first two days at Augusta National, but then crashed from two ahead to nine behind with a third round 81.

The experience was a painful one, but he also hopes it was beneficial.

“You can never get ahead of yourself really,” he said in his press conference after posting his total of 133, 11 under par. “It’s just incredibly boring to tell you guys, but it’s just one shot a time.

“I think maybe at Augusta it was on my mind away from the course too much. Like you sort of churn away a little bit when you should be relaxing.

“I think I will have learned something from that. It’s not worth thinking about tomorrow until tomorrow comes.

“At the Masters I had a slightly dodgy night and had nine hours between waking up and teeing off. I’m staying at home this week, so it’s a lot, lot easier to go and relax.”

Not that he was locking himself away in his own house. The Friday night agenda this time included attending a barbecue at Clarke’s Surrey home. “Invitations are second only to those for the Masters,” joked the Ulsterman’s manager Chubby Chandler.

Rose has still to register a victory since the 2002 British Masters at Woburn, is down to 65th in the world and at the moment does not have a place in the Open in July – something he shares with Colin Montgomerie, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam and Jose Maria Olazabal.

He is also way down the current Ryder Cup standings but, having finished seventh and fifth on the US Tour since the Masters, his spirits are high.

“I’m still a little bit below where I’d like to be ball-striking wise, but I seem to be not hitting too many destructive shots and I’m putting better.

“It’s been a while since I’ve won, for sure. I’ve had a lot of good performances in between without winning, which has obviously kept me feeling relatively upbeat, but there’s nothing better than actually holding up a trophy, that’s for sure.”

Rose, who estimates he was about eight when he first came and watched the PGA, had a big crowd following him – and partner Nick Faldo, of course.

A hat-trick of birdies from the start immediately brought him level with Els, but it was the 16th and 17th that really made the day. First he holed a 20-footer, then he chipped in from similar range after putting his first two shots in the right-hand rough and his third in the left-hand rough.

“Looked like a four all the way really,” he joked.

By then Price had birdied the last five holes for a 65 for nine under and Clarke joined him with a 67, although he was annoyed by a failure to birdie either of the two closing par fives.

Els had still to start at that point and Clarke said: “He will probably go out and shoot a few more (birdies). He will be tough to catch, but hopefully won’t be too far ahead.”

It did not work out that way. Els bogeyed the third and eighth and had to wait until the long 12th for his first birdie.

A pitch to six feet on the 17th and an 18-footer from off the last green kept him as favourite for the title and he said: “I lost the lead, but didn’t lose too much ground.

“It could have been a really tough day because I was very shaky at first, but I tried to hang in there.”

The big surprise was Vijay Singh’s 73, seven worse than his opening effort. The world number two shared top spot after an outward 33, but had four bogeys coming home and dropped to five under.

Faldo is on the same mark and Montgomerie one further back – a drastic improvement on recent events.

The former missed a third successive cut for the first time in his career last week, while Montgomerie has hit back from finishing 128th in Germany, his worst finish since his 1987 debut.

The Scot is still a long way from achieving the fifth place that could get him into the US Open next month or the win that would spare him Open qualifying and he admitted: “My expectations are low – very, very low.”

Lee Westwood and last week’s winner Trevor Immelman were among those who missed the cut, while Open champion Ben Curtis had to wait to see if his one over total was good enough to survive.

Dodd, only 272nd in the world, was only five under after bogeys at the first and third, but he then birdied the sixth and seventh and started the inward half with three more to go second on his own at 10 under.