SAN DIEGO — No one else had a chance to beat Justin Rose at Torrey Pines Golf Course on Sunday, and so his final challenge was to take on Tiger Woods.
Rose won that battle, too.
In what Rose felt was the most complete tee-to-green performance of his career, the 45-year-old Englishman sailed to a 2-under-par 70 for a seven-shot victory in the Farmers Insurance Open, breaking the 72-hole tournament record last set by Woods in 1999.
“Sorry, T-dub, if you’re watching,” Rose said in his CBS interview on the 18th green.
No apologies necessary. Rose knew the score. It’s one of the goals he set to keep him pushing forward, even when no one got closer than the six-shot lead he had going into the final round. He tapped in for par to finish at 23-under 265, one better than Woods and George Burns in 1987.
“I was keenly aware of it, actually,” Rose said with a smile. “It was the only thing I was focused on the last three holes.”
He also became the first wire-to-wire winner at Torrey Pines in 71 years. Rose probably wasn’t aware of Tommy Bolt doing that in 1955.
It all added to an astonishing performance by a veteran star who is playing some of the best golf in his career and still looking for more. He moved to No. 3 in the Official World Golf Ranking, and only Vijay Singh was older when ranked that high in September 2008.
Rose opened with a 62 on the North Course at Torrey Pines on Thursday and really never let up, playing even better on the South Course that has hosted two U.S. Opens. He extended his lead after each round: by one shot, four shots, six shots and then a seven-shot margin, the largest of his career.
Rose hit his second shot of the final round to 10 feet on the par-5 sixth hole for a two-putt birdie, hit his tee shot to just inside 10 feet on the par-3 eighth, then holed a 35-foot birdie putt on the par-5 ninth for a 33 on the front nine. That turned the back nine — all day, really — into a peaceful walk on the public course along the Pacific Ocean.
The tournament had one of its best weeks of weather, even by San Diego standards. The only thing lacking was drama, which was just fine with Rose.
This was little more than a battle for second, and that was a tie. South Korea’s Si Woo Kim (69), Japan’s Ryo Hisatsune (69) and American player Pierceson Coody (66) shared runner-up honors, a consolation prize worth $726,400. For Coody, it also is likely to get him into a pair of $20 million signature events to end the West Coast swing.
The tie for fifth at 15 under included Stephan Jaeger (68), one of three Baylor School graduates playing Sunday. Keith Mitchell (69) tied for 11th at 12 under, while Harris English (70) tied for 22nd at 10 under. English won the tournament a year earlier for the fifth win of his PGA Tour career.
AP photo by Denis Poroy / Baylor School graduate Stephan Jaeger hits from the second tee of the South Course at Torrey Pines during Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego. Jaeger tied for fifth place.
Meanwhile, Brooks Koepka finished his return to the PGA Tour after defecting from the LIV Golf League with familiar cheers on the ninth green when he tapped in a birdie putt for a 70. There were some 300 people around the green, most of them shouting, “Welcome back, Brooks!”
He headed to Arizona later Sunday for the loudest event in golf. The Phoenix Open tees off Thursday.
“I love the chaos,” Koepka said.
Rose, who also won at Torrey Pines in 2019, now has 13 career wins on the PGA Tour. Even for all he has accomplished, from a U.S. Open to an Olympic gold medal to seven Ryder Cup appearances for Europe, he has not stopped putting in the work to stay among the elite in golf.
“I still believe there’s good stuff in front of me,” Rose said.
He thought back to his closing 66 at the Masters last year — where he lost in a playoff to Rory McIlroy as the Northern Ireland star completed the career Grand Slam — his fourballs performance with Tommy Fleetwood on Saturday at the Ryder Cup last September, and the way he played this week.
His age is just a number.
“Those days or those weeks or those rounds are definitely showing me that the gas is still in the tank,” Rose said. “Obviously, accessing it is the job now. How do I do that more often? That’s always the trick, but at least knowing it’s there is builds a lot of confidence.”
In a week in which LIV Golf was a big topic, Rose was reminded of the offer to take Saudi money to join the rival league. He chose to stay put, and his performance over the past year validates that decision.
He left Torrey Pines a year ago at No. 55 in the world. He remains among the elite.
“My career goals (majors) have always only been attainable by staying on the European tour and the PGA Tour because access to them is not possible the other way,” he said. “I want to play among the best players in the world. That obviously for me is what keeps me motivated, what keeps me hungry, what keeps me pushing.”
AP file photo by Axel Heimken / Freddy Schott won a three-man playoff on the second hole Sunday in the Bahrain Championship, earning the first win of his DP World Tour career.
Schott wins playoff
AL MAZROWIAH, Bahrain — American golfer Patrick Reed’s bid for back-to-back victories on the DP World Tour came up just short when he was beaten in a playoff won by Freddy Schott, who is No. 436 in the Official World Golf Ranking but broke through for his first victory on the top-level Europe-based circuit.
Reed made a bogey on the first playoff hole to drop out of a three-man contest that also included Calum Hill.
The 24-year-old Schott clinched the victory on the second playoff hole after Scotland’s Hill hooked his drive out of bounds, shanked his fourth shot into water and shook hands with his German rival, who was on the green in three shots.
“Extremely happy, surprised. I don’t know what’s happening right now,” said Schott, who was clearly battling nerves as he attempted to end his tournament title drought five years after turning pro.
Reed was seeking a second straight victory — he won by four shots at the Dubai Desert Classic the previous Sunday — to complete a whirlwind week in which the 2018 Masters champion also announced he was leaving the Saudi-funded LIV Golf League after four seasons with the aim of returning to the PGA Tour later this year.
Ten shots off the lead heading into the weekend, Reed shot a 6-under 66 on Saturday and a 67 on Sunday to finish 72 holes of regulation play at 17-under 271. He was tied for the lead in the final round after picking up a stroke at No. 14 for a third straight birdie, but he played the final four holes in 1 over.
Schott bogeyed No. 17 on his way to a closing 69, and Hill, the leader of the second and third rounds, three-putted for a bogey at No. 18 to wrap up a 71 as they joined Reed in the playoff at Royal Golf Club.
AP photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack / Nelly Korda poses with the championship trophy Sunday after winning the LPGA Tour’s Tournament of Champions at Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando, Fla.
LPGA cuts it short
ORLANDO, Fla. — Nelly Korda won for the first time in 14 months without having to hit a shot Sunday when the LPGA Tour reduced its season-opening Tournament of Champions to 54 holes because of wind and cold that led officials to deem Lake Nona Golf & Country Club unsuitable for a final round.
Korda won seven times in 2024 but was shut out of the win column in 2025, though she was still behind only Thailand’s Theeno Jitikul in the Women’s World Golf Rankings. Now the 27-year-old American is a winner again — and in her native Florida, no less — with a most awkward start to the LPGA season.
She won with an 8-under 64 shot Saturday, an astonishing round that was roughly nine shots better than the 39-player field’s average in bitter cold and gusts that approached 40 mph. Korda said it was among the best three rounds she has ever played.
She finished just before the LPGA halted the third round when wind blew Youmin Hwang’s golf ball off the 17th green. The concern was because the final two holes were the most exposed on the course.
The LPGA planned on finishing the third round Sunday morning and playing the final 18 holes. But temperatures were below freezing in Central Florida, with the wind chill in the teens. The wind remained strong, and the ground was brittle.
The LPGA said the forecast was just as bad for Monday and chose to make the event 54 holes.
Korda finished at 13-under 203 for her 16th career victory. She was on the putting green and the practice range even though her victory was all but assured when the LPGA decided to cancel the final round.
“Today was nerve-wracking,” Korda said. “Not knowing what the outcome was going to be and still trying to be in the mindset of going out for 18 holes and knowing it was going to be tough. I was always trying to be in that mindset.”
Amy Yang was at 10 under with two holes to play when the third round resumed, needing a birdie and to hole out with a full shot over the last two holes. The South Korean player broke even on the par-3 17th, and the competition for first place was over. Yang went par-par for a 69 to finish second.
Canada’s Brooke Henderson, who completed a 66 on Saturday, was alone in third at 7 under.
It was the first time since the Hilton Grand Vacation Tournament of Champions returned to the LPGA schedule in 2019 that it was reduced to 54 holes. Weather is rarely a concern in Orlando, except for rain. This was an unexpected cold front with high wind.
The LPGA planned to start at 10 a.m., which was pushed back a couple of more times until the final round was canceled, and the third round didn’t resume until about 2 p.m.
“We talked to several players warming up,” said Ricki Lasky, the tour’s chief business and operations officer. “The ground was hard, and it was changing the trajectory of their shorts. We tried to take as much time as we could to get in all 72 holes. We did everything we could.”
Korda now will take six weeks off, saying she again will skip the entire Asia swing.