Deep breath in, summon up the courage, find the inspiration and a title he had dreamt of all his golfing life could be his at just 26 years of age. It might be only six strokes away.

"Until you actually are in the moment, there with a chance to win on Sunday, you don't quite know how you're going to react," said Rose.

"I actually surprised myself at how much I was able to enjoy the moment, how calm I felt and how confident I felt and how much belief I had, I suppose.

"I think only when you're really in that moment do you actually find out what you're made of."

Sadly for Rose, that feeling did not translate into victory. Birdie, birdie was the dream scenario, but reality was double-bogey, par.

The green jacket went instead to Zach Johnson and Britain's main hope exited the stage in fifth place. He had played his part, but in the end it was just a supporting role and, unlike the Oscars, there was no trophy to receive, no speech to make for that.

What Rose will be reminding himself as he prepares for his return, though, is not how disappointing it was that the main prize got away from him because of one bad drive down the 17th - he did not even think it was that bad when he struck it - but how well he did to get as near as that.

Joint second with Tiger Woods with a round to play, just a stroke behind Stuart Appleby, the last thing he wanted was to lose touch early on. But it happened.

Rose double-bogeyed the first and after a birdie on the long second double-bogeyed again at the next, then dropped another stroke on the short fourth. From three over par he slumped to seven over and was five off the lead.

On his previous visit to Augusta in 2004 Rose had led at halfway and then crashed to an 81. A repeat of that and serious doubts would have been raised about his ability to turn talent into titles.

But this time he hit back. Birdies came on the eighth, ninth, 11th - the hardest hole on the course - 15th and 16th. Suddenly he had only Johnson ahead of him and although that was as good as it got he took great heart from what he had just done.

Two months later Rose was also in contention for the US Open, three off the lead with 18 holes to go. Ending up 'only' 10th there was also disappointing, but to follow that with 12th-place finishes in the Open and US PGA meant that only Woods had a better record in the four majors of 2007.

And that makes him eager for them all to come round again.

"It meant a lot to me, just consistency-wise, knowing that my game stood up to not just one tournament or not just one type of course, but all four types of courses amongst the best players with the highest amount of pressure. That was encouraging.

"I prepared for them all the same way and I think it's nice to have maybe found a preparation routine that I feel gets me in the right frame of mind going into the tournament. So obviously I'll do the same this year and hopefully it will be even better."

This time, of course, he also goes into them as winner of last year's European Order of Merit - a remarkable achievement given that he played in only 12 of the 52 events.

His Masters display was pretty stunning too considering that it came between two enforced lay-offs because of a back injury, an injury which bothered him again later in the season and made him focus on his fitness during a long winter break.

A recurrence is, of course, the last thing Rose wants, not just for the coming majors, but also in September when he should, all being well, make his Ryder Cup debut. Although he won four times in 2002 he did not play against the Americans that year because the team was the one selected 12 months earlier before the terrorist attacks of September 11 led to the postponement of the match.

This July will also be special for him because it is the Open's return to Royal Birkdale in Southport 10 years on from his staggering fourth-place finish as a 17-year-old amateur.

Rose has come a long way since that unforgettable week and the 21 successive missed cuts with which he began his professional career.

Now it is about winning majors and while a Birkdale victory would be fitting indeed, his hope is that he will have tasted success either at Augusta or Torrey Pines before then.