Albany, Bahamas ….
Justin Rose knows he will need all of his ‘home’ course advantage if the European No. 2 is to capture victory in the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.
Rose resides on the exclusive Albany estate and produced a one-under par 71 in the warm but very windy conditions to end the round sharing second place with Open Champion, Jordan Spieth (72) at nine-under par.
The duo trail five shots behind American Charley Hoffman who continues to lead adding a 70 and move to 14-under par.
Rose ended the recently-completed 2017 European Tour season as runner-up on the Race to Dubai and thanks to back-to-back victories in China and Turkey before going within two birdies of capturing a second European No. 1 title.
Last year’s Olympic Gold Medal winner then shared 10th place a week ago in Hong Kong and the opening evet of the 2018 European Tour season.
Now the 37-year old finds himself in contention albeit five adrift of Hoffman.
Rose kick0-started his round with three birdies in his opening five holes only to give two shots back with bogeys at the seventh and ninth holes. He picked-up a fourth birdie of the day at the 10th but again the course bit back in taking bogey at the 12th and 16th holes ahead of a superb birdie on 17.
“Funny, I didn’t think the wind was that much stronger, it was maybe one or two-mile per hour more but really not significantly windy,” said Rose.
“I certainly had a hard time around the greens. When I missed greens it was just very, very hard to get the ball up and down. Some of the lies were very awkward.
“You kind of — you often try to hit the safest chip possible instead of the best chip possible, try to keep the ball on the ground sometimes.
“It does feel like a home game but I’m not really sure it’s an advantage. Especially in a crowd and an atmosphere like this, it’s definitely — it’s a lot more intimate so I know everybody, I can see everybody.
“When you’re playing in front of thousands of people, everybody can blend in and you can get focused a lot easier, where here I know exactly where my kids are, I know exactly where my wife is and my friends are.”
Rose will sure to have plenty of ‘home’ support drawn as he is to contest the last round with Hoffman and teeing-off at 5.05pm (UK time).
Hoffman is chasing a first victory in some 20 months after capturing last year’s Valero Texas Open in San Antonio.
However, he is also coming off the euphoria of being a member in the USAs emphatic Presidents Cup triumph.
Though Rose is no stranger to the situation he will face over the final day.
“I’m really excited tomorrow to be in the last group and to go out there and kind of be in the business end of things,” he said.
“It will be nice to be playing in front of family and friends is going to be a lot of fun with kind of nothing to lose and have a good run at Charley.”
European No. 1 Tommy Fleetwood had been tied with Rose and Spieth playing the last but found the water guarding the green in taking a double-bogey in a round of 74 to drop back into a share of fifth place on seven-under par.
