Last-Minute Open Withdrawal By Justin Rose

Justin Rose was forced to miss out on the 150th Open after a late back injury let him down at St Andrews

Justin Rose
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Moments before his 8.14 tee time Justin Rose was forced to withdraw with a back injury. The 2013 US Open champion, who would have been playing in his 20th Open, was replaced in the field by Rikuya Hoshino of Japan.

It was also bad news for Alex Noren who was the first alternate but decided to play in the Barracuda Championship in California.

The Englishman was due to play alongside his Ryder Cup team-mates Tommy Fleetwood and Francesco Molinari but his body then let him down at the last minute and he had to pull out.

An hour after his tee time Rose tweeted: "On the 4th hole yesterday during my practice round, I made a swing with my driver and started to feel pain in my lower back. I’ve been getting around the clock treatment but it just doesn’t feel ready to compete in this prestigious championship."

Rose, who made his name when bursting onto the scene as an amateur at the 1999 Open at Birkdale, has a fairly mixed record in the Championship with a best finish of tied second at Carnoustie in 2018. That year he made the cut on the number, with a closing birdie, before making a brilliant run at Molinari over the weekend.

The  former World No. 1's last win came at Torrey Pines in 2019, a run that has seen him being overlooked for the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits. More recently he showed some sizzling form at the Canadian Open last month when he closed with a final round of 60.

The next player on the reserve list is now Aaron Rai.

Mark Townsend
Contributing editor

Mark has worked in golf for over 20 years having started off his journalistic life at the Press Association and BBC Sport before moving to Sky Sports where he became their golf editor on skysports.com. He then worked at National Club Golfer and Lady Golfer where he was the deputy editor and he has interviewed many of the leading names in the game, both male and female, ghosted columns for the likes of Robert Rock, Charley Hull and Dame Laura Davies, as well as playing the vast majority of our Top 100 GB&I courses. He loves links golf with a particular love of Royal Dornoch and Kingsbarns. He is now a freelance, also working for the PGA and Robert Rock. Loves tour golf, both men and women and he remains the long-standing owner of an horrific short game. He plays at Moortown with a handicap of 6.