Justin Rose refuses to 'babysit' rival after behind-the-scenes request revealed

Justin Rose insists he will not "babysit" younger players despite agreeing to practise with Chris Gotterup at the Masters. Rose, 45, will take another shot at Masters glory this week, having finished runner-up at Augusta National on three separate occasions in the past.

The Englishman agonisingly lost out in last year's playoff to Rory McIlroy but arrived in Georgia in fine form after claiming victory at the Farmers Insurance Open on the PGA Tour in February. Rose's talent and experience is such that even a player as skilled as world No. 11 Gotterup has sought to pick his brain, despite having secured four PGA Tour titles of his own. Gotterup, who secured himself a practice round grouping alongside the veteran on Monday, gained valuable advice from Rose ahead of his Masters debut. Rose was asked afterwards who he leaned on for similar advice during his own rise in his younger days.

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He was further quizzed on whether he feels a sense of duty, now that he is more experienced, to pass on his wisdom, having agreed to the practice session with Gotterup. But he admitted that the American is already operating at such an elite level that he needs little in the way of mentoring.

Rose began by saying: "Yeah, I think I always have a lot of respect for people who go ahead and ask and say, 'Hey, would you mind having a practice round?' I'm always like, 'Yeah, sure, absolutely,' because I don't think I did a very good job of that myself. If I look back at my career, I probably learned the hard way. 21 missed cuts suggests I didn't learn very quickly and could have asked a few more questions and sought out a bit more help."

He added: "Obviously I'm not going to babysit Chris out there and tell him everything. He's a great player. There's not much you need to say. But just the fact he wanted to sort of observe or come out there and if he had any questions, I was more than happy to at least give my spin on something.

"Like you said, the Ryder Cup, yes, I think it's important to potentially have people in that role within the team, but at the same time, you don't want to force your opinions on people because what makes people great is their own unique kind of style. You can't try to influence too much. In that role, for example, certainly in the team room, taking it back to the Ryder Cup. But I'm flattered to be asked for sure."

The practice round was arranged by Rose's caddie, Mark 'Fooch' Fulcher when the pair crossed paths with Gotterup and his coach, Jason Birnbaum, at dinner in South Florida. Gotterup revealed earlier in his press conference: "It's funny, I actually was down in Florida a couple of weeks ago, and his caddie, Fooch, lives close by. Me and my coach, Jason, were at dinner, and we ran into Fooch at dinner. He said, 'Why don't you play a practice round with us?'

"We'd played a couple times this year. Justin has had great success here. Fooch has been around here 20-plus times, and Justin as well. There's not too many better people to play a practice round with that have seen the ups and downs of this place. It was fun. We don't play the exact same type of game but it's fun to hear what they have to say, what they've done well at and what they've maybe missed the mark at.

"Yeah, I think, as a first timer too, it's hard to really take it all in. Having not played the tournament to where you need to be here on certain holes, you need to be here, and kind of this wind, this wind - you haven't seen it all. So it's nice to hear what they have to say in that respect and at least be prepared for kind of anything that can come your way.

"It's more preparation work and hearing that stuff than picking their brain on the course. It's more kind of what to expect if this happens, what to expect if this happens. Yeah, it was great. I'm happy that he let me join him."