My handicap was two and you have to be scratch

"My handicap was two and you have to be scratch." A week last Friday he won the English Boys Under-16 Championship.Mark Foster, almost paternal by Rose's standards, shot 67 at Scotscraig and is attempting to qualify for the first time. At the same venue he shot 67 for joint first place in the Open regional qualifying competition. John Ball, the Open champion in 1888, was 14 when he made his debut 10 years earlier.Rose, who will be 15 on 30 July, was born in Johannesburg and the family moved to Hook (no place for a golfer) 10 years ago. "I will need a 64."The best round of his career was a 65 in April at his home course, North Hants, where he won the Hampshire Hog amateur tournament. His birdie putt rolled four feet past and he missed the return "My chances of qualifying are not very realistic," he said.

He had two bogeys in the first three holes, a solitary birdie at the 16th and he was hoping to pick up another at the 18th. It may have been a score that most 14-year-olds would have been proud of, but the competition for places in the Open is fierce "I'm disappointed," he said. "I thought I played quite well, although I was a bit edgy on the first tee. I learnt that you have to fight and keep going." At such a tender age, Rose is hardly in full bloom.

The course in 1821 and the one Mackenzie worked on, varied only 100 yards from the medal tees."Mackenzie thus appears another mystery in the mythology. How could a mere human "advise" on a heavenly creation ? St Andrews just is.. The chances of Justin Rose becoming the youngest player to appear in an Open since John Ball in 1878 receded yesterday when the schoolboy shot 73 in the first of two rounds at Scotscraig in final qualifying. It has never moved since.But did the Old Course change as the game changed? In 1924, on his way to the reputation that would see Bobby Jones ask him to design Augusta, the young Dr Mackenzie was brought in to advise the R & A.Although the museum at St Andrews makes no formal recognition of Mackenzie's services, Peter Mason of the Links Trust, said: "I think Mackenzie was responsible for introducing the championship tees that added 400 yards to the course length. The Old Course was not always played in this direction, accounting for some bunkers appearing to be "built" the wrong way around.The Open first came to St Andrews in 1873 It was a chaotic affair Young Tom was third with rounds of 94 and 89 Local caddie Tom Kidd triumphed with 91 and 88 Young Tom never won at St Andrews, dying in 1876 aged 24 By 1897 the R & A had become the seat of government of golf. In fact, the distinctive right- hand circuit, leading out and back, is Old Tom's handiwork.