Defending champ aims to regain mojo

When Justin Rose saw Aronimink Golf Club for the first time last year, he felt his best approach was, in his terms, to "take what you can get."

He got plenty. He set a course record of 64 in the second round of the AT&T National, grabbed a 5-stroke lead with nine holes to play, and held off a charge by Ryan Moore to capture the tournament by 1 shot for his second PGA Tour win in the span of about a month.

"If there's one thing about not having played a golf course before, you come into it with no preconceived notions," Moore said earlier this month in a conference call with reporters. "You formulate a strategy based upon how you see it for the very first time. You play it as you see it and you play it as you feel comfortable."

As the defending champion, Rose hopes the comfort level is high once again.

"You have the excitement and the energy that you can really gain from good memories," he said. "You know to get the job done, you have to stick to a process. The best way to get the job done is to stay in the moment. So that will be very much my approach to it. But it's nice to sort of relive the memories again."

The AT&T National victory came one week after he suffered a final-round collapse at the Travelers Championship, where he closed with a 75. He said what happened at Aronimink was "the first time I felt like I closed out a tournament in a way I could be proud of," dealing with emotions and executing the right shots under pressure.

It became a career year for Rose, 30, who wound up pocketing more than $3.6 million. He has played solidly this year with three top-10 finishes, the best being a tie for third at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill. However, he has missed the cut in each of his last two tournaments - the Memorial, where he also was defending champ, and the U.S. Open.

He said he is excited about the work he has done on his game with coach Sean Foley, and it shows up in one significant statistic: He is among the PGA Tour leaders in greens hit in regulation with more than 71.3 percent accuracy.

However, his putting has not been up to his standards. He is 143d in total putting and has struggled in particular with his mid-range efforts, connecting on just 8.6 percent of his tries from 15 to 25 feet.

He missed the cut at the Memorial by a stroke because of a second-round 75 that included 21 putts on the back nine. He called his putting there "unleashing oil on the greens."

"It seems like I'm a ways away, but I know that putting is such an interesting area of the game," he said. "And it revolves more around confidence than anything else. I believe I'm a good putter. I'm a streaky putter but I have the ability to putt well. I just need that little spark or something to get the confidence going."

Maybe he'll find it this week at Aronimink. He putted well last year but he felt the keys to his victory there were driving the ball in the fairway, and patience.

"I look at it as a golf course you can't bully at all," he said. "You can't chase scores on it. It's about keeping the ball in play, keeping it under the hole, and taking your chances when they come. If you start trying to find those birdies, then you start making bogeys. So for me, it was a test of patience more than anything."

The native of South Africa would like to duplicate that strategy this year on a course he likes. Until the competition begins, however, he may want spend a few moments savoring his 2010 victory after he arrives.

"When you turn up to the tournament, typically there's one or two more pictures of you around the place," he said. "And it's nice to be able to relive what was a great experience."