Justin Rose rekindled memories of the late, great Seve Ballasteros on the opening day of the Masters and a day that would have been Seve’s 58th birthday.

Rose picked off four birdies and just one bogey in a round of a five under par 67 and on the occasion of his 10th Masters.

Ballasteros had been Rose’s boyhood idol up until the super Spanish golfer sadly passed away in 2011.

“I remember Seve coming up to me and putting his arm around me, just giving me an encouraging couple minutes of pep talk,” said Rose.

“He was always very good to me out on tour and sort of a hero of mine growing up.”

Justin Rose of Britain hits a driver off the second tee during first round play of the Masters golf tournament at the Augusta National Golf Course in Augusta.

The former US Open winning Rose has struggled this year in his five PGA Tour events but showed good signs with two sub-7o rounds to kick-start last week’s Shell Houston Open.

“I’m a Major Champion and I’ve won great tournaments so I knew my game was there; it just had not shown up yet,” he added.

“I haven’t been in contention to have those feelings of late. The Florida Swing, which is a stretch of golf I’ve normally really played well in, and normally get myself into contention quite regularly through the Florida Swing, and that hasn’t been the case this year.

“I guess just that little sort of feeling of the spotlight being on you and the pressure there, and you know,

the crowd and the energy and atmosphere that you normally get later towards the back end of a golf tournament, I felt like I had that feeling early today. It was just a nice bit of energy or adrenaline to really kick start my game.

“I felt like I’ve been practicing really well the last two, three weeks, and it was nice just to be able to take it into the arena today.”