´óÏó´«Ã½

The 30-year-old has held the first-round lead in three of his five Masters (2004, 2007, 2008), led at halfway once (2004) and has held at least a share of the lead at some stage on all four days of the tournament. He was also second after the third round in 2007.

Clearly, there will be some who say this just shows he hasn't the gumption to see it through. But, on average, it takes six visits to win your first Masters and Mickelson didn't win the first of his three until his 12th.

Rose missed out on qualification last year but went on on the PGA Tour.

Last month, he led going into final round of before finishing fifth and a week later he shared third behind countryman Luke Donald in the at Bay Hill after steaming around the back nine in 31.

The closest Rose has come to a Green Jacket when he was one shot off the lead standing on the 17th tee, only for his drive to take a violent ricochet off a branch and end up on the 15th fairway.

Rose knows his way around Augusta but can he put four good rounds together? Photo: Getty

He went on to make a double bogey to end fifth, his best result so far. Not bad, considering he fought back from two 75s in the second and third rounds and a double bogey early in this final round to still have a chance.

But Rose, who shares Tiger Woods's , is not plagued by what-might-have-beens and is excited to be back on a course where he has real pedigree.

"I see it as an opportunity," he said. "I see it as a golf course that suits my game. I seem to play well around difficult golf courses and I seem to putt well on really quick greens.

"Every experience I've had here I've gone on from. In this game nothing is ever going to go your way the whole time - you lose 95% of time anyway. So it's how do you get better by losing? You only do that by taking the right lesson from every week and applying it going forward.

"You can't get too disappointed or down. This game does offer a lot of disappointment and you can't always dwell on it. You've got to use it as a motivating factor .

"Given the same opportunities I certainly feel a lot more equipped to handle them. I don't take much pressure on board, I don't feel too much expectation. I feel like I'm going in quite free. I don't feel I've got any huge monkeys on my back."

After his double win last year, Rose went into the as one of the favourites but missed the cut.

"The thing I learned from last year was that I overdid things going into the Open," he said.

To combat this he took last week off to relax at his place in .

"They've prepared the golf course down there firm and fast to really create a lot of the same shots we're going to face at Augusta," he said. "It's the perfect place to do a little bit of work and relax."

He's come a long way from the young man after turning pro following that fourth-placed finish as a 17-year-old amateur in the Open at Royal Birkdale in 1998.

"My mindset going into Augusta is I wanted to get the game going in the right direction but clear out my mind and drop a swing key or two going into the tournament, rather than adding things and working harder on my game."

In his previous appearances at Augusta, one rogue round has been his undoing. In 2004, a disastrous third-round 81 blew his chances, while in 2008 he took 78 in round two to slide away.

"There are very fine lines around the golf course," he said. You can have a day when you're hitting the right slopes and the right shots and feeding the ball to the flag, and the next day you're just that little bit off and you catch the other side of the slope and it rolls to the back and you're in three-putt country.

"And maybe you get off to a slow start and then you decide to press and take on a flag you otherwise wouldn't and make double. That's the type of course it is, it's risk and reward and it baits you into doing that. I've learned the hard way, around Augusta, certainly.

"I know I can play the golf course as good as anybody. I've also seen what it can do, so when you're running into a situation that feels similar you know the mistakes you made last time and know what not to do."

Presumably like driving into a tree on the 17th in the final round.

"I definitely had a moment on the 17 tee," Rose told me. "I birdied 16 and Tiger was playing in the group behind and he hit it in quite close and the crowd was going crazy.

"I had a moment of thinking, 'Oh, this is so cool, I'm really, really enjoying myself and I feel great. I feel in control here.

"Then it happened but don't I feel like I could have done a whole lot differently. I made a good swing, not a great swing, and you mishit shots at certain times, but you don't expect to be punished like that.

"But the thing I take from it is that you always imagine how you would cope if you had a shot to win the Masters, how would you feel? I felt like, 'this is it, this is why I play the game, this is what I enjoy doing and sometimes that's all you need to know about yourself."

No-one would be surprised if Rose's name was top of the leaderboard at some stage this week. The key for him is to make sure it's on Sunday night.