The Englishman created history with his wire-to-wire victory at the Farmers Insurance Open – but now he wants to make some more…
Back in 2022, Justin Rose reached an inflection point in his career.
He had slipped from No.1 in the Official Golf World Rankings to outside the top 60 and so many of his fellow European Ryder Cup stalwarts in his age bracket – including Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood and Sergio Garcia – were accepting lucrative offers to join the upstart LIV Golf League.
But Rose, fueled by a childhood dream to win more majors, resisted the league’s overtures. The US Open and Olympic champion did not want to be bought for his past achievements; he was desperate to create new ones.
The Englishman, 45, reflected on that decision after defying his age once more with perhaps the most dominant win of his career yet at the Farmers Insurance Open.
With his wire-to-wire, six-shot win at Torrey Pines, Rose broke a scoring record set by Tiger Woods (1999) and George Burns (1987) on the iconic California course with a staggering 23 under par aggregate. After his 13th PGA Tour victory, he is now back to No.3 in the world rankings.
“My career goals have always only been attainable by staying on the European Tour and the PGA Tour,” he said when asked if this recent renaissance has validated his LIV snub, “because access to them is not possible the other way.
“But obviously I want to play in amongst the best players in the world. That obviously for me is what keeps me motivated, what keeps me hungry, what keeps me pushing.
“It would have been easy to potentially do other things, but none of that excited me. None of it gave me access to what I wanted to achieve. So I always felt like my childhood self wouldn’t feel very good about making that decision and giving up on those dreams.
“I feel like I’ve been close. I would say, you know, sniffing and knocking on the door of a couple majors since those decisions were made and those moments. Yeah, it did validate the decision. The way things are in the world of golf right now, I feel like it’s good to see people wanting to play where it motivates them to be their best.”
Rose, of course, has come so close to adding to his 2013 triumph at Merion in the past 18 months. First he went through final qualifying to play in the 2024 Open, where he finished second at Royal Troon.
Then there was the heartbreaking playoff defeat to Rory McIlroy at the Masters, where Rose did virtually nothing wrong and played the round of his life with his Sunday 66 at Augusta National.
After those two near misses came a victory at the FedEx St Jude Championship in Memphis and an inspirational performance in Europe’s Ryder Cup win in New York. Rose has now won two of his past six starts and is the oldest member of the world’s top three since Vijay Singh.
His dream of decorating his already garlanded career with more majors is still alive.
“It doesn’t get any easier the game, for sure,” said Rose. “I think obviously, historically, we’ve seen that guys do have that little kind of tail off. I think back in the day, there was that bit of a waiting room for the Champions Tour from 47, 48, 49, 50.
“But Phil [Mickleson] won a major at [almost] 51; Adam Scott, you look at him, he’s hitting the ball incredibly well. There’s guys that can compete, I think, at this age, but there’s not many of us, too. If you look at the world rankings, there’s not many guys in their 40s.
“It’s a life balance thing as well but, listen, I don’t want to think overthink it. I’m just really enjoying my game right now and I think that gives me the the energy and the commitment to want to work hard at it.”
