Justin Rose hopes to maintain his good start to 2012 as he makes his first appearance on European soil this season at the Volvo World Match Play Championship.
The Englishman faces in-form compatriot Robert Rock and Open Champion Darren Clarke in the group stage at Finca Cortesin, but Rose heads to Spain having already claimed the WGC-Cadillac Championship in March.
“It's exciting to be a part of this tournament,” he said. “I've played a couple of times, as it was formerly at Wentworth, and it has a great history of champions. Match play is always nice to play - we don't get the opportunity to do it that much.
“You're looking at 24 great players, I try not to look at a group and go ‘that's a difficult group or that's an easy group’, because it's 18 holes of match play and anybody can beat anybody at this stage. You just have to go through and take it match by match.
“They are two good players - I certainly won't be going into any of those under prepared. They are both good guys, as well. I'm sure it will be fun and games.”
Rose’s friend and Ryder Cup partner Ian Poulter is amongst his chief rivals for the €458,333 winner’s prize, and Rose acknowledges the 36 year old is formidable in the head-to-head format.
“Match play is an interesting one, sometimes you can shoot 66 and lose,” Rose added. “But you have to take it with a pinch of salt. At the same time, Ian Poulter has proved that there is a knack to it.
“His Ryder Cup record is amazing, and he's won both world match play championships. There is an art to it, I guess, and I'll be doing my best this year to try to figure that out even more. I'm hoping that good, solid golf will prevail.
“I think sometimes if you just play your own game, and you believe in it and you trust it, that becomes very hard to beat.
“I think he's a great putter. He seems to make clutch putts. In a 72 hole tournament, there's only clutch putting coming down the back nine on Sunday. But in match play, you can have a putt for a halve, and the whole round is a little bit more that way. You're making putts to halve, you're making putts to win holes. I think he's very good at that.
“He's obviously just one of those competitive guys, eye to eye, hates to lose, and that obviously works for him.”
