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A year ago, Justin Rose nearly beat the odds and claimed his Green Jacket. His dream was put to a stop by fellow Ryder Cup teammate, Rory McIlroy, who was able to just make the final putt in fewer strokes. This year, the Englishman is trying to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself. So he is practicing on the green to give himself the best shot at winning the 2026 Masters Tournament.

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As Iona Stephen reported on Golf on CBS, “He (Justin Rose) was on the putting green with Phil Kenyon, his putting coach, and Fooch, his caddie. They were using this device, which looks rather interesting. I had to reach out to Fooch about what this was for, what’s the purpose of this putting training aid.”

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“The answer on this occasion, he is trying to reduce the rotation in his left forearm. When he takes the putter away, sometimes Phil Kenyon notices there’s a lot of rotation in the left forearm. (It gets) The putter face opening in a way that you have to correct through the strike. This special device quietens down that left forearm, allows him to bring the putter back in a more neutral path, and hopefully delivers a pretty picture at impact.”

It seems that the forearm movement has been a major issue for Rose recently. That didn’t affect his putt in the playoff of the 2025 Masters Tournament against McIlroy. He missed the cup despite his forearm being straight and stable. However, after coming so close to winning the major once again, he isn’t leaving any room for errors.

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Interestingly, this is not the first time Rose’s putting has come under the radar. Even his coach talked about how he struggled on the green previously.

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Did Justin Rose always have trouble on the green?

You would think that after winning so many titles, Justin Rose must have mastered every part of his game. But most of his early success, including the 2013 U.S. Open win, came when he had issues with the putter.

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Even his coach, Mark Blackburn, admitted that Rose wasn’t always good at sinking the ball quickly. While discussing his training routine, the veteran coach mentioned how he hadn’t found his rhythm on the green until 2016.

In an interview, Blackburn admitted that Rose had a lot of problems on the short grass until 2016-17. It wasn’t until he started working with Phil Kenyon that he actually improved with the putter.

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The two joined forces in the summer of 2016. Blackburn confirmed that Rose would listen to all the instructions from his coaches and apply them religiously. That helped him get immensely better on the green. By the time the 2016 Rio Olympics came around, he had already improved enough. That was one of the primary reasons he won the Gold medal that year.

Now with his new training routine, the Englishman might get even more clinical at Augusta National this year. After two playoff losses in the major, could he turn things around and finally wear the Green Jacket in 2026?

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Molin Sheth

2,005 Articles

Molin Sheth is a senior Golf writer at EssentiallySports and a key member of the ES Golf Trends Desk. He brings strong editorial judgment and a data-driven approach to uncovering the game’s overlooked angles, delivering insightful play-by-play reporting across golf’s four major championships. As part of the EssentiallySports Journalistic Excellence Program, an in-house initiative that mentors and develops writers through expert guidance and rigorous training, Molin works closely with industry-leading mentors to bring clarity and depth to a sport where precision matters and every shot tells a story.

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