Rose seizes control at Port Royal

Justin Rose produced the shot of the day as he forged a two-stroke lead after the first round of the PGA Grand Slam of Golf at Port Royal.

The US Open winner carded a four-under 67 and leads from Jason Dufner (-2), with Adam Scott a further shot back at one-under. Defending champion Padraig Harrington had a day to forget as he signed for a three-over 74.

Rose kept his composure the best as all four struggled on the back nine. The Englishman, Dufner and Scott were tied at four-under through 14 after Rose had dropped back from five under.

But while Scott (double bogey) and Dufner (bogey) came unstuck at the course’s notoriously-tricky par-three signature 16th, Rose mustered a three before claiming birdie at 17.

It was his second at the first, though, that will stick in the memory for many of the spectators. After going long off the tee, Rose cut a six-iron around a tree, avoiding the water to finish a foot from the hole.

He said: “It should be shot of the day! But it followed the worst shot of the day.

“My tee shot on the first was going left. Actually I thought it was going to go straight in a bush, but it had landed in the cart path just in front of that bush and hopped over, so I caught a good break there.  

“I had 186 yards [to go]. So I had to cut it around the tree out of the Bermuda [grass] over the water; just the start I was looking for, really."

The player who infamously took 21 events to make his first cut as a professional is in confident mood and believes a similar round today will make him hard to beat.

He added: “Obviously it's very weather dependent around this golf course. But say if we have the same as Tuesday, if I can shoot another four or five under, it might be pretty hard to catch, and if someone does catch you, you have to give them credit.

“My job on Wednesday is just to go out and have fun again. This is what it's all about, being here and having fun, enjoying the reason why you are here.

"But obviously you do want to play your best and I want to go out and just play a good round of golf and try to be hard to catch.”

Scott went off like a steam train, tearing up the front nine but was hauled back by a bogey at 14 and the disaster at 16 where he found the back lip of the bunker.

He said: “It was a tale of two nines. I played really nice on the front nine.

“Then just like the other guys I had a few struggles on the back, and made the worst of it, really, unfortunately missed a few putts and had a bad break on 16. 

“But I felt like I played pretty well. I probably should have had a couple better. I have to go out there tomorrow and light it up. 

He added: "Anything can happen out there. If you don't play well, it's not easy to get it around here out of the Bermuda rough. It's tricky and unpredictable and Justin is playing great.

"If he plays like that again, it's going to be tough. But you don't have to do much wrong to shoot a couple over around here, either.”

Second-placed Dufner was slightly less optimistic about catching Rose — and admitted he was limping for some of the round.

“I'm beat up,” he said. “It’s a tough golf course to walk. I've played a lot of golf since July.  And it's great to be here and I'm going to get through it but I'm looking forward to getting some time off in the future.”

He added: “It's a course where if you can get going, you can shoot a six, seven or eight under. It just depends what the weather is like Wednesday.”