[Photo: Orlando Ramirez]
After crushing the Farmers Insurance Open field and the Torrey Pines courses in a record-breaking victory, Justin Rose was savouring the moment on Sunday evening in San Diego when he mentioned himself being in the company of Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and Scottie Scheffler. Whoa. That put him in danger of producing hellish backlash from the cellar dwellers in the social-media realm.
Then again, we challenge them to fault the premise.
At 45 years old, with now 13 PGA Tour victories, an Olympic gold medal and a bunch of special moments in the Ryder Cup, Rose has learned a thing or a hundred about managing his game and emotions around a golf course, and few times was that more evident than in the past four days, early in the Englishman’s 28th year as a pro.
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Rose shot 62-65-68-70 and his 23-under 265 total surpassed the previous record held by Woods (1999) and George Burns (1987) – both reaching the mark when Torrey Pines was a pushover compared to the brute the South Course became ahead of the 2008 US Open.
The seven-stroke margin of victory over three players is the largest since Woods won by eight in 2008, and Rose is the first player to win San Diego’s tour event by being the sole leader after every round since Tommy Bolt did it in 1955 – 13 years before the event moved to Torrey Pines.
Now the oldest player to win the tournament – in the last year that it’s being sponsored by Farmers Insurance – Rose carved up Torrey Pines the same way he did when he won there in 2019 with a 21-under total while occupying the No.1 spot in the Official World Golf Ranking. He led the field in greens in regulation with nearly 82 percent hit, was second in strokes gained/approach, gaining 7.25 on the field, and was 10th in strokes gained/putting (3.53).
It was a masterful display of shot-making and strategy, which brought him to his own comparisons to some of the greats.
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“What a week from start to finish,” Rose said. “I just got really disciplined this week. Obviously, I was playing well, but I just thought the way I managed my game, the way I thought about things, the way I was patient at the right time, the way I was able to absorb a little bit of the odd mistake by holing the right two-putt at the right time.
“There was a lot of mental maturity from the strategic golf point of view out there, which I think you look at the best players in history – Jack, Tiger, I’m going to say Scottie Scheffler now as well. That’s the sort of thing they do week in and week out, and I feel like that’s something that I did really, really well this week.”
Of course, much is being made about Rose’s age, and the win moves him to No.3 in the world and makes him the second-oldest (a few months behind Vijay Singh) to ever reach the top three. Not that Rose, who began his pro career at 17, thinks much about it.
“I take pride out of it – that I’m doing something that’s not easy to do,” he said. “But I don’t wake up in the morning believing that narrative, either.”
Sahith Theegala, who is 28 and finished nine shots behind the winner, has come to know Rose more now that they play on the same TGL team, and he marvels at the lengths he has gone to take care of himself and not let his game slide.
“What he’s doing at 45 is unbelievable,” Theegala said. “Just to be able to gain the ball speed he has, to be able to keep the competitive fire that he has, the discipline while also being a great family man… He kind of does it all. He’s very, very impressive.”
Theegala opined that Rose hasn’t received nearly the attention he should. “Somehow, I feel like he’s flown under the radar for 20-plus years,” he said. “No.1 in the world, major champ, gold medallist, whatever. You name it, you feel like he’s done it. So to be playing potentially some of the best golf of his life now.
“I know he wants to win majors really bad. I wouldn’t be surprised if he snags one this year at all, especially after last year.”
Of course, if there is a smudge on Rose’s career, it’s that he’s won only a single major while finishing outright or equal second five times. He tied for second at the 2024 Open Championship, and there was the devastating loss just last April, when Rose did about all he could to win his first Masters, only to lose in a playoff to Rory McIlroy.
Those are sources of tremendous motivation for him.
“I think that maybe I would say I’ve had some rounds last year – whether it be Sunday at Augusta or… Saturday of the Ryder Cup, [or] some of the golf this week, to be honest,” Rose said. “I think those days or those weeks or those rounds are definitely showing me that the gas is still in the tank. Obviously, accessing it is the job now or is the trick… But at least knowing it’s there kind of builds a lot of confidence.”
This was the week that saw the return of Brooks Koepka to the PGA Tour from LIV Golf (he ultimately finished T-56) and the news that Patrick Reed was leaving the Saudi-backed circuit with plans to regain his card for next year’s PGA Tour season.
In the early days of LIV’s formation in 2022, Rose was among the players approached about joining the league – with a sizeable signing bonus on the table, no doubt. But he turned them down, as he said on Sunday, because “I kind of always felt like my childhood self wouldn’t feel very good about making that decision and kind of giving up” on the dreams of winning majors and meaningful tour titles. Safe to say, he has no regrets.
“I would say, sniffing and knocking on the door of a couple majors since those decisions were made and those [other] moments… it did validate the decision,” Rose said. “The way things are in the world of golf right now, I feel like it’s good to see people wanting to kind of play where it motivates them to be their best.”
