"At 17 it doesn't really matter if you have a full Tour card. As long as you're accelerating, learning, working and practising, that's the important thing and I haven't lost sight of that. The thing that has always kept me going is a deep-down self-belief that I am good enough to do something in the game."All that pressure to beat cuts, all that scrutiny, well I like to think it is something I have drawn from ­ and am drawing from today. There is always pressure in golf, but to be leading the Masters after two days, to be feeling good about my game, well, whatever happens, these have got to be the greatest positives."As Rose talks with such engaging candour, you are bound to recall the days of European domination, the great wave of Ballesteros, Olazabal, Faldo, Woosnam, Langer and Lyle, and you have to see a point of comparison.At 23, Rose has already known the extremes of the sporting life, and it is this that was perhaps his most powerful asset going into yesterday's third round. He could hear the thunder of the chase, the cries for the American favourite Phil Mickelson, the quickening pace of the Tiger and the relentless tread of Olazabal and Ernie Els. The look in his eyes said that this had brought inspiration rather than dread, and if it happened that this in any way changes he knew he would always have a copy of the front page of the Augusta Chronicle, which proclaimed on the day of Palmer's Last Hurrah: "One Rose above the rest". That, like his performance on and off the great course for two days, was also quite indelible, and this was so despite yesterday's mocking laughter of the golfing gods..

As Colin Montgomerie made a hasty retreat from Georgia after another lost weekend at Augusta National, Justin Rose was within arm's reach of a Green Jacket. There was, of course, many a slip 'twixt cup and lip beckoning over the remaining 36 holes, but Rose of England seemed remarkably composed at the Garden City. His aggregate of 138 gave him a two-stroke lead over two fellow members of the European tour Jose Maria Olazabal and Alexander Cejka. Rose was at six under par for the tournament, Olazabal and Cejka at four under and they were one stroke in front of the Californian Phil Mickelson.What Mickelson and Montgomerie have in common is that they have enjoyed brilliant careers without winning a major championship. The difference is that Mickelson always gives himself a chance of winning the Masters.

Monty, apparently, does not.Even after shooting a very creditable 71 in the first round, Montgomerie, who won a record seven consecutive order of merits on the European Tour, refused to talk about his round before leaving the course. His behaviour on Thursday was almost polite compared to his departure on Friday evening, after he had recorded an 80 which left him at seven over par for the tournament.Once again he missed the halfway cut and, according to those closest to him, set a land speed record in moving from the 18th green to the car park. This was his 51st appearance in a major championship, his 51st comparative failure.It probably didn't help Monty that he was playing behind Arnold Palmer and his demob happy army. This was Palmer's valediction, his 50th and final appearance at the Spring Classic, at least as a competitor The 74-year-old Palmer, as expected, missed the cut.