JUSTIN Rose admits his punishing schedule left him shattered and contributed towards his failure to qualify for golf's first major of the season, the US Masters.

His low rankings last year - 93rd on the European Tour and 64th on the US PGA Tour - ruled out an automatic place, as did his tied 22nd finish at Augusta in 2004 as only the top 16 get return invites.

So Rose was left with just four events over the past month to qualify.

The gutsy player gave it his all to try and climb into the world's top 50, but the 24-year-old was unable to do so and his last chance came in The Player's Championship at Sawgrass last week.

The north Hampshire ace needed to win to get an automatic entry into the 93-strong field chasing the coveted green jacket at the Augusta National on April 7. Rose opened with a 77 (+5) and, although he shot a 67 (-5) in his second round, he missed the cut by a stroke.

He said afterwards: "This week was my sixth tournament in a row and, if I'm to be honest, I felt a little jaded.

"This was made worse by the fact that I picked up a cold and felt pretty weak.

"The first day was very frustrating, especially as the course was playing easy, but if you are slightly off your game here you really get punished, as I found out."

Rose continued: "I really hate missing cuts and came out for my second round raring to make some birdies and get myself back in the tournament.

"I managed to do this by going -6 for the first 12, but could not quite finish off the job and ended up shooting 67.

"That was the third cut this year that I have missed by a single shot."

Rose confessed he was greatly disappointed not to have done better or be playing at Augusta for the third consecutive year.

After leading the 2004 tournament until a disastrous Saturday score of 81 (+9), he was desperate to return and vanquish that ghost.

He said: "Obviously, I would love to be playing at Augusta and putting my third round last year to rights.

"But I also feel like I'm in need of a service and I'm looking forward to two weeks off and coming out stronger at Hilton Head for the MCI Heritage.

"There were a lot of positives to come out of my final round at Sawgrass.

"I putted the best I have putted all year and I managed to take the way I was hitting it on the range to the course.

"So a break and some good practice with Lead (coach David Leadbetter) will hopefully pay dividends when I start playing again."

First published: Friday, April 1, 2005