PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Justin Rose treats his body like a temple.
The 42-year-old Rose has battled nagging back injuries in recent years, including having to pull out of the British Open at St. Andrews in July. It has led him to take extreme measures to keep his body healthy enough to perform at the highest level. But Rose isn’t just eating a salad instead of a burger and fries. He purchased his own traveling gym that travels from tournament to tournament and allows him to work out and recover. It’s no stretch to say that it played an integral role in his victory two weeks ago at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, his 11th career PGA Tour victory and 23rd title worldwide. It also snapped a winless drought that had stretched back to the 2019 Farmers Insurance Open
“It’s made a massive difference, I think,” Rose said. “It’s a stripped-down RV with hot and cold plunges, steamed shower and infrared sauna and all those other modalities. It’s a place for me to go. It has a coffee machine and all the creature comforts.”
Rose has returned to living full-time in London with his family and his kids are attending schools there. But this isn’t a RV that he lives in on the road as other players such as Jason Day and more recently Jordan Spieth do. Rose believes he’s the only player on Tour with his own gym on wheels, something he invested in and began using on Tour in June 2021.
“I realize there are certain things I’ve done in my life that don’t make my professional career easier so how do I combat that?” he said. “Those are steps I’ve taken to continue to fight the curve. The RV has everything to do with health and wellness. I’m not getting any younger.”
Cold, blustery conditions forced the AT&T Pebble Beach tournament into a Monday finish. When play was suspended, Rose retreated to his personal gym.
“The ice bath after a 50-degree day is less appealing,” he said. “There are days when I feel a little banged up.”
In addition to monitoring his health and wellness on the road, Rose has benefited from the wisdom of swing instructor Mark Blackburn. They started working together in November when Rose became fed up with a run of middling performances far below his standards.
“I figured there had to be something I’m missing,” said Rose, who worked with Sean Foley for the bulk of his career, including when he won the 2013 U.S. Open, 2016 Olympic gold medal and won the 2018 FedEx Cup as World No. 1. “I was very aware that I didn’t want to be a player that goes from coach to coach to coach. The most important thing is he’s given me clear boundaries in which to operate… My brain likes to know the whys and the hows and he does that through metrics and through some technology and makes it very believable for me. He hasn’t tried to change my pattern so much as re-introduce some things that have worked well for me in the past.
“All I’ve done is given him a pattern that works based on his body designed to protect his back,” Blackburn said. “He was just a little lost and I’ve given him some clarity. Here’s what you’re doing, here’s what you need to do to fix it and holding him to task.”
As for Rose’s one-of-a-kind gym, Blackburn said, “He’s taking care of himself, his body and where it needs to be. That’s huge.”
