Rose treads water but is still aiming for another big splash

On Thursday, 10 years on, he must have felt more like Jacques Cousteau.

But he emerged from his return to where it all began with his head above the water and even managed to look positively jaunty as he walked up the 18th fairway to the best reception a crowd of a few hundred bedraggled souls could muster.

Waterfall: Rose stumbles after playing a shot from the rough at the sixth hole

Rose, 27, almost produced a finale to warm their cockles. In an echo of 1998, when he pitched in at the 72nd hole to seal a memorable week, his approach to the last green landed just short of the flag and contemplated bouncing into the hole before spinning back.

Disappointingly, the putt was one of his weaker efforts and he walked birdieless from the course. A four-over-par 74, however, turned out better than seemed likely at halfway and, in the context of a wet and windy day, it represented a more than decent effort.

‘I really dug in on the back nine,’ was his assessment. ‘After nine holes I just had to regroup. That is easier said than done. When you’re four over you feel like you need to press and push. But I managed to get back into a good mind-set.’

Rose also speeded up, a matter of necessity since he and playing partner Aaron Baddeley were put on the clock at the start of the inward half. Tom Watson, the third member of the group, would not attract the attention of the official timekeepers even if he were playing in slow motion.

‘They played better when they played faster,’ Watson reckoned, outlining a philosophy as much as an observation.

‘That’s interesting,’ Rose responded. ‘Tom certainly gets on with it. It’s great to watch. A lot of us adapt to Tour life. No matter if you are a quick player, you’re not going to get around in under five hours.’

The threesome took five hours and five minutes to complete their round. Rose thought the intervention of officialdom a fair cop, though no one could argue that the weather amounted to a significant mitigating factor. ‘I felt a bit like Rafa Nadal, drying myself before every shot I hit.’

Driving rain: Rose attempts to find some shelter from the elements

The day began so differently to how it had ended a decade ago. A ripple greeted his arrival on the first tee, something more of a hearty cheer on the announcement of his name. At 7.36am, in the chilling cold and pouring rain, enthusiasm was not the most obvious emotion on the faces around the first tee.

The sound of whingeing could be heard on the wind. ‘Not too bad, seen a lot worse,’ Watson declared, as if trying to put a couple of whippersnappers in their place.

The combined ages of Baddeley and Rose fell four years short of Watson’s 58. Had he putted, the five-time Open Champion would have spanked the younger men as well as playing them off the park.

There was something of an irony in his golden putter. He used to be just that. Not now. Despite missing a few short ones, his 74, including a glorious birdie at the first, demonstrated all the shot-making, ball flight and wind judgment which made him such a links specialist.

Rose admitted he was in awe, though not so much that conversation did not come easily. He asked Watson what had been the worst weather he experienced in The Open Championship.

Watson pointed to the opening round at Muirfield in 1980. That is the occasion when a sodden Japanese journalist asked: ‘Why you no hold Blitish Open in the summer?’

‘What did you shoot?’ Rose asked Watson. ‘He said 68!’ The exclamation mark could be heard in the Englishman’s voice. Watson later recalled that both he and Lee Trevino scored 68s that day and ‘basically lapped the field’.

The recklessness of youth and natural talent that accompanied Rose that memorable week in 1998 had been replaced by a more solid technique in a more powerful body but with all the pressure heaped on Britain’s highest ranked golfer.

For Rose, the task is in the mind as much as anything else, as illustrated by the presence on the practice green yesterday of sports psychologist Jos Vanstiphout.

‘It’s more mental out there, especially in those conditions,’ Rose said. ‘I didn’t feel my swing once out there. You’re wearing four or five layers, you’ve got your waterproof jacket on, the rain is hitting you sideways. The only good swing I made was off the 18th when I took my waterproof jacket off.’

He made plenty of bad swings, it has to be said, including ugly hooks into the dunes at the fifth and sixth, the latter leading to a double bogey. Yet, by the 18th, his mood was more optimistic. ‘That reception just feels a little bit unique to Royal Birkdale for me,’ he said.

If Rose can today repeat his 66 of the second round in 1998, a score two strokes lower than anyone else on the day, the roars will be lionesque.