MOST of Hampshire were cheering Justin Rose on in his quest to win the Claret Jug for the first time at Royal Troon, on Sunday.
But for the Hampshire PGA club professional responsible for encouraging the next generation of young golfers to take up the game of golf and dream of being a Major champion, the way the US Open winner – who is sponsored by Mastercard – played and conducted himself on the Ayrshire links was truly priceless.
Kevin Caplehorn, who took over running Hampshire Golf’s new Future Champions Tour for the U12s at the start of the season, was actually in the 40,000 strong crowd cheering Rose home at Royal Troon.
The former Lee-on-the-Solent GC pro was part of the Professional Golfers’ Association team manning the Swingzone all week in Scotland, helping people of all ages improve their swing, including hundreds taking tentative shots for the first time.
Kevin, who is now based at the par-three course at Ampfield, near Romsey, said: “I have been part of the PGA Swingzone team for the past 10 years, and Royal Troon was the only venue on the R&A Open Championship rota I had not been to with them.
“So I was desperate to get selected again this year and delighted to be chosen. And for the way the Open panned out with Justin going head-to-head with Xander Schauffle like that, was the perfect script.
“I cannot believe how well Justin played all week, but particularly on the Sunday. To shoot 67 at Troon in those conditions and not win the Claret Jug shows who well Xander played.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the last two players to win the Olympic Gold in golf were battling it out to be crowned the Champion Golfer of the Year – Troon historically produces these famous duels like Nicklaus and Watson and Stenson and Mickelson.
“Justin is such a great role model for every young golfer – he’s been World No. 1, he’s been European No. 1, he’s won the Fed Ex Cup to be No. 1 in America and he was the first Englishman to win the US Open in more than 40 years.
SEEING SAM PLAY IN OPEN WAS ICING ON CAKE
“And after the kids play in our new Hampshire Future Champions Tour events, they will hopefully go on to play in all the county junior competitions – and see Justin’s name on the trophies they will compete for.
“What better motivation and inspiration can our future stars have then being able to say they won something that Justin Rose won when he was that age?”
“Everyone who came over to the Swingzone on the Sunday before the leaders went out, really wanted Justin to win. We are incredibly lucky that he was raised in Hampshire and is Hampshire Golf through and through.
“I can’t wait for him to see a player who comes through the Hampshire Future Champions Tour and win something big to get the Rose seal of approval…
“Who knows they might even win his junior tournament – that would be really something.”
Hampshire Futures Champion Tour co-ordinatior Kevin Caplehorn at The 152nd Open at Royal Troon
WHY IS ROSE SO POPULAR AROUND THE WORLD?
KEVIN who has been a club pro for nearly 30 years, believes it starts with a simple philosophy Rose embraces. He said: “The most impressive thing is that Justin always plays with a smile on his face.
Everyone who is a golf fan remembers him looking up and pointing to the heavens and his dad when he won the US Open in 2013.
“He clearly works hard and practices very effectively to have the success he has had. But Justin is such a grounded, humble person which comes across in his TV interviews.
“He is also a modern guy and connects with the kids because of the way he does social media.
“Rosey also puts so much back into the game – he sponsors the Daily Telegraph Junior Championship which he won as a teenager, and there is the Justin Rose Ladies Series, which was a major lifeline for the women’s game coming out of the pandemic.
“Justin tweets good luck messages to players from Hampshire and the county teams when they are doing well in the big events, and has even sent little motivational videos in the past.
“The kids the team of Hampshire Golf coaches help develop could not have a better role model.“
Justin Rose with the Hampshire Hog Trophy he won as a 14-year-old at North Hants Golf Club, in 1995. Picture by MARK SANDON
How Justin rose through the ranks as Hampshire junior
JUSTIN Rose’s meteoric rise to stardom as an amateur was all achieved before he had even reached 18. He was born in South Africa and moved to Hampshire before he was five years old.
The teenager, who grew up in Hook, famously chipped in on the last in the final round at Royal Birkdale in 1998, to finish tied fourth alongside a certain Tiger Woods, who had floored the world’s best at August to win a a Green Jacket at the age of 21 a year earlier.
Rose won his first big event as a 14-year-old, claiming the Hampshire Hog at his home club North Hants in 1995 against some of the country’s best men’s amateurs in the 36-hole Open, which is one of the UK’s top events each spring.
Later that summer, having just turned 15, he won the English Amateur U16 and U18 titles in the space of a month to become the first player ever to hold the McGregor and Carris Trophies in the same season.
In 1996, he won the county’s Junior Championship and helped Hampshire win the English County Championship for the first time in 70 years.
A year later having been both a boy’s and men’s international, he became the youngest player to be picked to represent Great Britain and Ireland in the Walker Cup, in the biennial clash against the USA, which dates back to the 1920s.
He won the St Andrews Links Trophy that summer and also appeared in his only Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Channel Islands Amateur Championship final, losing to Scott Stanley, who birdied the last two holes to beat the teenage prodigy.
Of course, Rose has also appeared in six Ryder Cups – with four on the winning team – since turning professional on the back of his memorable Open debut 26 years ago.
But it took him four years during which he really struggled in the pro ranks before he picked up his maiden European Tour victory, claiming four wins around the world in 2002.
Sadly, it was during the period when his father Ken – who had done so much to nurture and guide his rise to the top as an amateur – was battling against leukemia, that those priceless victories fell his way, and formed his outlook on life.
Justin Rose won the McGregor and Carris trophies in 1995
Rose, who was born in South Africa but moved to Hampshire before he was five, now has 25 victories around the world – including two World Golf Championship titles and 11 on the PGA Tour – amassing nearly £52million in prize money.
Justin earned another £1.122m after sharing second place at Troon with American Billy Horschel. Ironically, Justin’s caddy Mark Fulcher was on Horschel’s bag when the Florida ace won the BMW PGA at Wentworth in 2021.
Rose moved his family to the Bahamas when he first moved to the PGA Tour in 2009, but relocated to the UK in 2020 – moving close to the rest of his family, who still live in North Hampshire.
Having missed out on qualifying for The Open five times in his professional career, the 43-year-old came through Final Qualifying earlier in July.
Rose returned to Somerset’s Burnham & Berrow, the tough links track where he won the Carris Trophy back in 1995 – and that extra effort was almost rewarded with the biggest prize in British golf.