Sport
Justin Rose backed for The Open
US Open champion Justin Rose has been backed by Tony Jacklin to go on and win The Open next month.
Tony Jacklin won the Open in 1969 and the US Open in 1970 – 10 years before Rose was born – and believes Rose can emulate his success at Muirfield.
“Justin is bound to go into the Open with enormous confidence,” said Jacklin.
“He finished like a real champion at Merion. Muirfield is as good as any course in the UK and he will certainly go in as the favourite on the home front.
“He is still young at 32 and how many more he wins is up to him. It’s all about confidence and I’ve no reason to believe he couldn’t win four or five Majors.
“Once you prove you can win at this level, you owe it to yourself to focus on the Majors. They are the ones you get remembered for.”
Rose also feels his two-shot victory over Phil Mickelson and Jason Day could be the first of many for him and his fellow English players.
“There’s been a very strong crop of English players for quite some time now, with myself, Westwood and then Poulter as well,” Rose said. “Paul Casey was up there for a good while and is probably going to make a comeback, I think.
“I really hope it does inspire them. I think it was always going to be matter of time before one of us broke through. It was just going to be who and I always hoped it was going to be me to be the first, obviously.
“But I really hope that it has broken the spell and the guys can continue to win some for themselves.”
Nick Faldo was the last Englishman to win The Open in 1992, beating John Cook by one shot at Muirfield.
