JUSTIN ROSE is set to enlist the help of an old friend when he tees off in his third British Open Golf Championship at Royal Lytham tomorrow.

The 20-year-old Hampshire player is seriously considering using the tried and trusted old putter which helped carry him to a sensational fourth place at Royal Birkdale in 1998.

It was the best ever post war finish by an amateur in The Open and marked Rose out as a tournament player for the future. Three years and many trials and tribulations on, Rose, 21 later this month, has truly come of age as a golfer.

He arrives at Royal Lytham as one of the most consistent players on the European PGA Tour, just outside the top 20 in the order of merit and with a couple of second-place finishes (both in South Africa) tucked under his belt.

He has had four top ten finishes in all but insists: "I would have been in contention for a couple of tourmament wins last month if I'd been able to putt.

"From tee to green, I have never played better but it was on the greens I was falling down. I was making myself loads of birdie chances and not taking them."

It called for radical measures and after missing the cut for the European Open at the K Club, Rose arrived for the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond brandishing the putter he had used as an amateur.

And the result? He took just 22 putts in a four under par first round 67 and although he faded over the last two rounds of the championship, the old putter might just be brought out again at Royal Lytham.

"I've got a very special feeling for The Open after what happened at Royal Birkdale," said Rose. "Career wise it created a new set of problems for me, but I wouldn't have changed a minute of what happened at Birkdale where so many people were cheering me on. It was a fantastic, uplifting experience. Unforgettable."

It's one he'd like to repeat at Royal Lytham. After all he seems to have a liking for the west Lancashire coast!

Coach David Leadbetter helped put Rose back on the straight and narrow as his game suffered in the hurly-burly which followed Royal Birkdale, and Leadbetter, over from his Florida base for the Open, was doing some last-minute remedial work with the Rose golf swing which Justin says: "Started to waver a bit at Loch Lomond.

"Hopefully it's nothing too serious. I've felt more in control with my game than ever this season, apart from my putting!"