Justin Rose and Erik Van Rooyen has been out due to injury before hitting his first shot in the 150 edition of the British Open in Saint Andrews that inaugurated Paul Lawriechampion in 1999. Alex Noren was the first reserve but he decided to travel to the US this Wednesday to play the Barracuda Championship on the PGA Tour and he was wrong because this Thursday he would have entered the tournament.
Rose said he felt pain in his lower back after swinging his driver in practice Wednesday. Noren was in St. Andrews earlier in the week as the first alternate, but ended up going to California to play the PGA Tour event, losing his place in St. Andrews.
Rose was replaced on the field by the Japanese Rikuya Hoshino. The Englishman, number 50 in the world ranking, finished tied for fourth place while still an amateur at Royal Birkdale in 1998. Justin, winner of a US Open and second after losing in the playoff to Sergio García in the 2017 Masters, has two other top -10 in the Open, in 2015 and 2018. Van Rooyen retired with neck pain and was replaced by the Englishman Aaron Rai.
The leader in the clubhouse, with 68 strokes (-4) was the amateur Barclay Brown. It was hardly windy on this morning shift and the red numbers appeared on the scoreboard.
