By George Flood
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Justin Rose has explained the heated scenes witnessed during his and Tommy Fleetwood’s high-profile fourballs match against Bryson DeChambeau and Scottie Scheffler at the Ryder Cup.
Tempers boiled over on a fiery second day at Bethpage Black, where Europe dominated again to win six of eight matches in total and take a huge 11.5 to 4.5 lead into Sunday’s 12 singles matches, where they will need just three more points to seal a famous triumph on American soil.
Other than the behaviour of the rowdy home fans and their treatment of Rory McIlroy, another big talking point in New York on Saturday came as Rose lined up an important putt on the 15th green as he and Fleetwood looked to put their fourballs match beyond the reach of the star USA pairing of DeChambeau and Scheffler.
A row broke out after Rose appeared to ask DeChambeau’s caddie Gregory Bodine to move out of his eyeline as he went to putt, leading to a heated disagreement that also saw DeChambeau and Fleetwood exchange angry words.
The argument continued on the walk to the 16th tee, with Scheffler’s caddie Ted Scott and Europe vice-captain Francesco Molinari also involved.
“I am disappointed this has to be a talking point at the end of a really cool match,” Rose told BBC Radio 5 Live. “The level of golf was incredible.
“I was ready to hit my par and I didn’t feel that space was being honoured. I made my feelings known, asked them to move, and maybe not as politely as I could have done.
“But in that scenario coming down the stretch we have got a lot on our minds. It’s intense out there and I said to them if I should have done it a different way then I apologise.
“Other than that I had to step up and make a huge putt with a lot going on. That’s all part of it and it’s up to them if they want to take it the wrong way.
“From my point of view, there’s not malintent. I’m happy to win a huge match with Tommy and we know what that meant to the whole place here today.”
Opening up again on the incident on Sky Sports, Rose said: “It was a shame that the match got to that point because it was actually a really great match.
“I was waiting to putt, the boys were obviously working on their read, obviously going through a lot of their sort of calculations and bits and pieces.
“I waited a few seconds and then I felt like they came up again and I was like, ‘It’s my putt, right?’, or however I said it. By no means was there any disrespect or anything like that, but obviously it was taken the wrong way.
“I don’t think we should dwell on that, honestly. I spoke to the boys. It should be (put to bed) in my opinion. There was no intent behind it whatsoever.
“I admire Scottie more than anyone else on tour. It was something that was taken in a way that wasn’t intended. I am just trying to control my environment in that moment.”