Three-time Masters runner-up Justin Rose has strong Round 1 in 2026

AUGUSTA, Ga. ― Justin Rose wasn’t alone in struggling on the second nine during Thursday’s Round 1 of the 90th Masters Tournament, but he’s one of a handful of players in the field that remembers the last time this event was this tough.

With the lack of precipitation and temperatures rising throughout the weekend, the course is only going to get more challenging. Rose’s comparison went back to 2007.

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“This course can play harder if it’s windy, right, and I think that’s the only thing that would make it play harder really,” he said. “But 2007 for me — I know Shane (Lowry) probably didn’t play in 2007, but when Zach Johnson won, I felt like that was very crispy, cold, windy. That was probably the toughest I’ve seen it play.”

For reference, 2007 is the last time a Masters champion finished with a winning score over par.

Rose sits three shots behind the lead after what was a solid round through 16 holes. He finished bogey-bogey on Nos. 17 and 18, two of his three squares on the second nine.

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A three-time Masters runner-up (2015, ’17, ’25), he knows as well as anyone that the leaderboard Thursday is rarely reflective of the final standings 54 holes later.

“I think the lead at this point is irrelevant. I think there’s so much golf ahead that, yeah, there’s no point in even looking at who is doing what at this moment in time,” Rose said. “It’s just about, like I said, just executing your strategy, feeling like you can run the clock down, playing as well as you can, and then towards the end you’ve got to kind of figure out if you need to change your strategy, but until the final few holes really it’s just about doing as good as can you do.”

Rose tees off with Justin Spieth and Brooks Koepka at 9:55 a.m. ET Friday.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Justin Rose contending once again at Masters, where he has 3 seconds