The popular image of Justin Rose at Royal Birkdale is that of a 17 - year- old amateur, ruddy cheeked and rake-thin, with his arms outstretched in response to the cheers of the gallery and his head tossed back laughing at the audacious chip-in on the final hole which earned him fourth place in the 1998 Open Championship.

But there is another, darker, personal memory of the Lancashire links that Rose has only now revealed. It is of the following summer and a lone figure spending an eternity sitting in the car park staring at the entrance to Royal Birkdale's clubhouse.

Rose, who will play the first two rounds of this year's Open alongside Tom Watson and Aaron Baddeley after the tee-times were announced today, recalled: "I didn't feel worthy enough to step through the door. I suddenly felt I didn't really want to be doing this. I didn't want to be going down memory lane while my game was not in the place I wanted it to be."

In truth, 12 months on from that glorious moment at the 72nd hole, his game was nowhere to be found. The Open had been followed by a desperate run of 21 missed cuts as Rose attempted, and persistently failed, to establish himself as a professional.

Weaker souls may not have survived such trauma. So the fact Rose walked through that same clubhouse door this morning with his head held high, proud to be considered a genuine contender for the Claret Jug, tells you everything about his strength of character.

When Iain Dowie coined the phrase "'bouncebackability"' to describe the pertinent attribute of his Crystal Palace side back in 2004, he might well have been inspired by Rose.

By that year, he had climbed from 407th in the world rankings to claim a first European Tour victory, lost his father to leukaemia, gathered himself to finish fifth in the US Open and then begun a slump that was to see him tumble out of the top 100.

Today, he is a lofty ninth in the rankings, is European No1 and Nick Faldo has already pencilled in his name for a Ryder Cup debut.

It is still not all plain sailing. When Rose missed the cut in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in May, a reporter who had not done his research fired the question: "What are you like at bouncing back?"

Rose offered a rare, withering look and replied with more than a hint of sarcasm: "I'm rubbish at it."

Now he can laugh at the memory. "Yes, I was a little edgy," he said. "I wasn't playing well, it was as simple as that. But I used it as a little bit of inspiration."

The following week Rose finished second in the Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village in Ohio. "I always feel I play my best when my back's against the wall," he said. "When I have a tough time, I do dig in."

Rose did just that during the bleak period after the 1998 Open when playing into the weekend proved beyond his capabilities. He said: "For a while I couldn't explain how poorly I was playing, it just didn't make any sense.

"So I tried to take the Open Championship completely out of my mindset. I told myself I could play this game, that I had a little bit of talent, so if I just worked hard at it, put the hours in and stayed positive I would get there." Rose, now 27, took time out in May to spend three days at Birkdale. And this time, there was no sullen introspection in the car park.

He said: "It was an important trip which allowed me to get all the reminiscing out of my system.

"I didn't want to turn up for Championship week going, 'Yeah, I remember when this happened, and that happened. It was especially nice coming back with my career on track.

"If I'd returned having struggled for 10 years, Birkdale would have been a hard place to come back to. It would have seemed like I wanted to turn the clock back. But this is a good time for me and I feel like I'm close to playing really, really well.

"This is going to be a special Open for me and no doubt there's going to be a lot of distractions. But I'm ready for it and I'm really excited about it.

"I couldn't script it any better if this was to be the right week for me. It would be an amazing story, what with what happened 10 years ago and then winning the tournament as a pro."

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell, who won the Scottish Open yesterday, has been paired withTodd Hamilton and Rory Sabbatini on Thursday. But today he permitted himself the luxury of a day off.

"I had planned on playing nine holes at Royal Birkdale, but I decided to skip it," said the 28-year-old. "I'm taking a pretty chilled approach to The Open. I've been playing so much golf that everything is pretty much on automatic. The swing's in good shape. I'm happy."