Mar19 Rose may miss Masters

Justin Rose is a doubt for the Masters after pulling out of this weekend’s WGC event in Miami with back pain.

 

The Brit is working had to be “fighting fit for Augusta”, and didn’t want to aggravate the problem by playing in the big-money CA Championship at Doral in Miami.

 

“Though I’ve been practising, I haven’t yet got round to hitting any drives,” he said.

Rose has had “a slight weakness” in his lower back for some time. It is just over five years ago, for example, that he had to pull out of the Qatar Masters and ended up being ferried to the plane in a wheelchair.

 

His latest flare-up occurred when he was taking a week off after the recent Accenture Matchplay, where Rose knocked out Phil Mickelson. “I have absolutely no idea what I did to detonate it, but I suspect it was a case of the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

 

“The secret for me is to stay on top of the condition with exercising and physiotherapy and that’s something I do pretty well for most of the time.

 

“This week’s decision is as much of a long-term thing as anything else. The treatment is going well but everyone says that the important thing is not to come rushing back.”