• Los Angeles Open

Rose returns after 'race against time' to be fit

ESPN staff
February 12, 2014
Justin Rose is hoping to add to his maiden major championship win - the 2013 US Open © Getty Images
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Justin Rose will tee up at this week's Los Angeles Open after two months out, but admits he has rushed his recovery in order to be ready for major championship season.

The reigning US Open champion has been sidelined with a shoulder injury that forced him out of two events originally on his schedule - the Abu Dhabi Championship and the Farmers Insurance Open.

Rose, 33, revealed he was keen to get back out on the course and begin preparation for next week's WGC-Match Play Championship and the Masters in April.

"A lot of hard work went into me being here," Rose told Sky Sports News. "If I'm honest, I've only really been hitting balls [and my] driver for about a week or 10 days now. So it really has been down to the wire.

"It was a race against time to really get back playing and get back strong.

"My immediate focus is just continuing to improve as a golfer and really have the discipline every week to go out and execute my skill set, which I believe is growing and getting stronger every week.

"That's how I'm going to play my best golf. That's how I'm going to contend in majors. Certainly I want to be 100 percent come April.

"I figured that I wanted to get out and play, and if I wanted to play well in the near future, I thought it was important for me to get out and play some competitive golf.

"My game's felt really good at home. I'm swinging it really nicely and everything technically looks really good. I had an opportunity to spend a lot of time on my short game, but when you get a scorecard in your hand everything is a little different. So I wanted so make sure I got my season underway."

Fellow Englishmen Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, David Lynn and Brian Davis will also tee up at Riviera Country Club, in Pacific Palisades, California, as will 2011 Open champion Darren Clarke. American John Merrick defends his title.

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