Rose blooms again after missed cut

Justin Rose missed the cut in last week's European Open which, given his recent history, means this week's Scottish Open is as good as his.

Blossoming in the relatively benign conditions yesterday morning, he produced a six-under par 65, to lead by one from Miles Tunnicliff and Fredrik Jacobson.

He is also two ahead of two more Englishmen, John Bickerton and Warren Bennett and two Scots, Sandy Lyle and their amateur champion, Barry Hume.

Three Irishmen were in the next three groups: Michael Hoey lay only one shot further back, on 68, while Paul McGinley shot 69 and Darren Clarke 70. Ronan Rafferty had a two-over-par 73.

Rose has won twice on the European tour this season, the Dunhill Championship in South Africa and the Victor Chandler British Masters at Woburn, and on both occasions he had missed the cut the week before.

In fact the only consistent aspect of Rose's golf is its inconsistency. The record shows that he has played 14 events on the European Tour and despite the obvious ability demonstrated by the wins, has managed to miss the cut on no fewer than six occasions.

Some golfers would be depressed by the failure to realise their talent so frequently, but Rose, intelligently, chooses to make a positive out of it. "I have learned to trust my game," he said yesterday. "I know I can play. When I have a bad week I don't panic. I believe I can find a little something and be off and running again.

"There doesn't seem to be any one thing that goes wrong. Last week, for instance, it felt like putting but in other weeks it has been something else. It's probably purely mental, so my motto has been 'Don't get mad, get even'."

Financially he is certainly doing that. Already this year he has won over £450,000, to be ninth in the Volvo Order of Merit and he has reached a stage in the game where no one is surprised to see him on top of a leaderboard.

It was, of course, four years ago at Royal Birkdale that he famously appeared on a leaderboard, when he chipped in at the last hole to finish joint fourth in the British Open. That week he played with all the freedom that comes with being an amateur; not being weighed down by expectation and not troubled by the thought of making hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Next week at Muirfield it will be very different. In addition to his European Tour wins he has two more to his credit this year, one in Japan, another a South African tour event, and people will be looking at him in a different light.

The relative resurrection of Sandy Lyle continues with yesterday's 67. It is 17 years since he won the Open at Royal St Georges, 10 years since he won anything at all on the European Tour and there have been many moments in the interim when it did not seem obvious why he was continuing to play.

"I was sending off letters to sponsors trying to get invitations to their tournaments and in some cases not even getting a reply. That is a bit degrading for someone like me with my background and what I've done in the game. But the best thing is to just start playing better and battle my way back."

A decent round today and he will need to recall what caddie Dave Musgrove told him when he made the cut - his first of the year - at Woburn six weeks ago. "Just remember," said Muzzie, "to come back for the weekend."