Justin Rose went in search of some Masters magic on Saturday after revealing how he overcame a bad start to keep his hopes of a second major title alive.
Rose played the first four holes of his second round at Augusta National in three over par before drawing a thick line through that part of his scorecard.
And the psychological ploy worked wonders for the 2013 US Open champion, who played the remaining 14 holes in five under to finish seven under par, seven shots behind halfway leader Jordan Spieth.
"I just literally drew a line on my scorecard, pretty deep with pencil, like a metaphorical line in the sand and just said to myself, come on, play one shot at a time," Rose explained. "I needed to turn it around.
"It was a bad start, just didn't feel comfortable on the golf course. The wind was swirling in between clubs on every shot. I birdied five which settled things down, and got in the same rhythm that I had yesterday. And to just shoot five under from that hole in, I was pretty proud of that."
Spieth's 14-under-par halfway total of 130 was a new Masters record and equalled the lowest in any major championship, giving the 21-year-old a five-shot lead over Charley Hoffman with Rose, Dustin Johnson and Paul Casey another two shots back.
"There's never a big enough lead on this golf course," Rose added. "Obviously he (Spieth) is in complete control of his game. It's not like this happened out of the blue to him. There's been three or four weeks he's been comfortable with the lead and being in contention. So that's going to really pay off for him probably.
"But I think there's always a score on this golf course, especially on Sunday, if you hit the right line. There's always that 65 out there with an opportunity to make up some ground. It's a major championship. It's never easy playing with the lead, either.
"I am seven back going into the weekend but a lot can happen on this golf course. There's some magic out there. I will keep playing my game and hopefully something special can happen."
Source: PA-WIRE
