Justin time: a wilting Rose blooms again

When the rain began to fall in drenching sheets shortly after the completion of his third round yesterday, Justin Rose focused on the hours up ahead. The forecast was spot on; it was going to be rough out there. As the wind strengthened, tearing into the tents, whipping up the Firth of Forth enough to swing merchantmen on their anchors, Rose knew that he had been blessed with the best of the day. Now he waited to see whether the worsening conditions would bring the leaders back to him.

A round of 68 had brought Rose back into contention, repairing the damages of Friday when he gave up four shots, falling dangerously close to missing the cut. On Friday he felt as if the night before had been long and hard but a recovery would be a mark of his development as a top-line tournament player.

After two rounds in the company of Tiger Woods, getting his first experience of the clamour that surrounds the world No 1, Rose found calmer waters with the American Justin Leonard. "It was not only a break going off early, but also to be playing with an Open champion and finding him such good company," Rose said. "We chatted here and there, complimented each other on good shots and seemed to get around the course in next to no time. It was all pretty relaxed, a big difference from the first two days."

To have survived the bleak experiences that followed his decision to turn professional after finishing tied for fourth place in the 1998 Open at Royal Birkdale, the ludicrous hyperbole, and then 21 missed cuts before the tide turned, says a lot about Rose's character.

Four tournament victories this year have taken Rose into the world top 50 and the next phase of his career. "That's why playing with Tiger Woods this week was an important thing for me," he said. "The more you do it, the easier it becomes. It has helped to make me more battle-hardened."

Rose was standing splay-legged beneath a canopy close to the Muirfield clubhouse, and the impression you got was one of growing maturity. He said how impressed he had been with Woods' patience. "I'm looking to learn all the time so to be as patient as Tiger is even when the putts don't drop has to be a target for me."

One thing Rose appears to have picked up from Woods, probably just from watching him, is a purposeful stride along the fairway. Between shots, Woods moves briskly, head up, his demeanour consistently positive. This was, more or less, the way Rose went about his work yesterday. Surmounting an early crisis with a fine recovery from the rough, he birdied the fifth and sixth holes to get back into red figures after begining his third round at one over.

The par-five ninth, a clear birdie chance while conditions were relatively calm, proved disappointing for the 21-year-old Englishman. Twice in the rough, Rose found himself relying on the Woods brand of patience. "I stayed calm and got out of it with a par," he said. "I guess that was a bonus."

With Leonard also moving steadily along, improving his score in tandem, Rose jumped further up the leaderboard with a birdie at the par-four 11th. In contrast to his experience over the first two days, the gallery was not large, maybe because not much was being made of Rose's chances. "He's too far behind for it really to matter," somebody said, not realising how foul the weather was likely to turn.

Occasional sharp squalls were a hint of things to come and at the 15th Rose felt the wind getting up. "I'd walked from a couple of greens grateful for a par so it did not make any sense to take risks over the last few holes. I thought that if I could get in with my score [three under] it would be a good day's work."

At the par-five 17th, Rose's tee shot went wildly left, riding a strong breeze to rebound into the rough from a high white wicket fence separating the fairway from a row of hospitality units. Playing a fine shot from the undergrowth, Rose got his ball well back in play to set up a birdie chance that just slid by.

Standing on the 18th tee, Rose and Leonard both glanced up at the darkening sky, clearly pleased to be in sight of the clubhouse. Rose's luck would hold when his approach, lost left, stayed out of a greenside bunker. A confident eight-footer for par re-established him in the tournament.

"I've won a couple of tournaments this year shooting 65 on the last day, so even at five back I'd still be in with a shout," he said. "Paul Lawrie came from 11 back to win at Carnoustie." Then the rain came and the wind blew and one by one they all came tumbling back to him.