Rose's Ryder Cup Plan

Justin Rose insists he will be focusing more on playing well than his chances of making the Ryder Cup this autumn.

The Englishman finished third in the Honda Classic at Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, on Sunday - closing the tournament by matching the course record of 64 to shoot up the leaderboard.

The 29-year-old plays mostly in America, but is desperate to represent Europe at Celtic Manor in October, and has his sights set on making Colin Montgomerie's team.

Rose insists though that he will be mainly focusing on playing well, and let Ryder Cup qualification come as a consequence.

"Ryder Cup is really important to me but it's something that I don't feel like I can focus on right now," said Rose.
Weird

"It's a weird thing. I think, for me to get into the Ryder Cup, I need to not worry about the Ryder Cup if that makes any sense. The Ryder Cup will take care of itself if I play well. I've just got to play well.

"Like I did last time around, I had to tailor my schedule towards the end of the qualification process to make the team, and that's what I'll do again, should I be close."

Rose was on Nick Faldo's team two years and picked up three points, and given the current strength in British and European golf, he knows it will not be easy to retain his place.

"I think I'm ranked eighth in England now," said Rose. "I'd struggle to make the Ryder Cup team.

"I feel like I'm a pretty good player, so that does speaks volumes for how strong English golf is right now. Obviously we've got four, five, six (high) in the world rankings as you all know. But it goes deeper than that.

"Obviously we are a real big golfing nation. I saw it out there today, a lot of English fans, English support out here. British people love their golf."

Rankings

Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter and Paul Casey are the English trio near the summit of the rankings, and Germany's Martin Kaymer, Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy and Sweden's Henrik Stenson also feature in the world's top 10.

Rose's form in Florida, where he finished behind Anthony Kim and tournament winner Camilo Villegas, was good and he is well respected in the United States, but has yet to win on the PGA Tour.

"I have played good enough golf to win out here," Rose said. "I've been close a few times.

"If I can just maintain the direction I'm going and certainly try to recreate the sort of calm mindset that I've had the last few days, I certainly believe it will happen."

"I feel motivated to play well over here this year. Obviously I've won the European Order of Merit. That's a great achievement, too. I want to go on to achieve more on the European Tour but I feel like, in some senses, I have ticked that one off my list.

"I feel like, in my career over here, I haven't done as much over here as I have over there, obviously. So that's a focus for me, to try to break through over here. And I guess that's where my attention is right now.

"Being ranked outside the world's top 50, it's tough to commit to playing both tours. That's why I need to get back into the top 50 and that will make my schedule a lot easier and make my decisions to play the European Tour a lot more simple."