Justin Rose’s admission about his caddie on Friday at The Masters, ‘I didn’t necessarily like it’

Antony Martin · April 10, 2026

Photo by Hector Vivas/Getty Images Justin Rose is in a fantastic position after two rounds at The Masters. Rose followed his opening round of 70 with a hard-fought 69 on day two at Augusta National. At the time of writing, the 45-year-old Englishman trails the leader, Rory McIlroy, by two shots. Advertisement Justin Rose loves coming back to Augusta National and it will be a crying shame if he ends his career without having won The Masters. Rose has already highlighted how difficult it will be to win The Masters this year, given the tremendously challenging conditions at Augusta. Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images The Englishman lost in a playoff last year to Rory McIlroy and he missed out on a green jacket in 2017 as well after Sergio Garcia got the better of him in extra holes. Maybe 2026 will be his year. There is probably nobody who is more deserving of a green jacket. The Englishman addressed the media after shooting three-under-par on Friday at Augusta National. Advertisement Rose was asked what his relationship with his caddie, Mark Fulcher, is like out on the golf course. The Englishman explained how he and ‘Fooch’ do not always agree on certain decisions. “Yeah, I’ve got a very robust pre-shot routine for sure, and I’m always trying to iron it out,“ Rose admitted. “I’m always trying to get the flow of that. I’m always trying to slightly speed it up rather than getting stuck over the ball for too long, all that type of stuff. “Yeah, I’m very conscious of my routine for sure. Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images “It’s just a delicate balance, isn’t it, because I think it’s such a — if someone interjects and puts an idea in there that’s not your own, it’s very hard to then commit to it. So we have this sort of relationship where I need to see it; I need to drive the vision of what we want to do. Advertisement “Yeah, we’ve discussed that 5th tee shot numerous times, and there was a plan, I didn’t necessarily like it. Anyway, whatever, that was that.“ Justin Rose defends his pace of play at The Masters Rose received some criticism for the amount of time he took to hit his second shot into the ninth green. It took the 45-year-old three minutes from when he got to his ball in the fairway before he finally pulled the trigger and hit his approach. However, Rose explained why he took so long to play his second shot. “On No. 9, that was more me,“ he said. “I really wanted to hit 9-iron in there, and the wind wasn’t fitting that club, and I just didn’t really want to hit 8-iron in there because I felt like it was going to skip through the green. So I was really trying to bide my time and wait for that little moment where I could commit to the 9-iron. It was a great moment where I was able to get it quite close to the hole and make birdie. Advertisement “You don’t always have that luxury of — because the course, in general, the play is fairly slow, you know there’s going to be some backups, Amen Corner coming, I could afford myself that moment there. But sometimes on TOUR you don’t have that luxury; you just have to pull the trigger and go.“ I get what Rose is saying there, but there is surely no excuse to take that long over a shot? It’s all well and good that a backup may have been coming around Amen Corner, but what about the group on the ninth tee who were waiting for him to hit before they could tee off. Slow play is simply unacceptable regardless of the tournament or the situation.