Justin

Rose

Rose steadied 11-of-15 fairways today but it was a costly mistake off the tee that stalled his round today. He took less-than-driver at the par-4 eighth but still found water, leading to a double bogey to drop him out of true contention. Rose picked up just one birdie on his way into the clubhouse. For the week he ranked top 15 in approach, around-the-green, and putting but just 59th in driving. Rose now has three straight finishes of T12 or better but he’ll need to tidy that up that driver before next week’s U.S. Open.

The Englishman opened his week with back-to-back bogeys but didn’t hand his head, responding with seven birdies over the next 13 holes. He landed just 11 GIR but did gain two strokes on approach as well as 2.6 strokes around-the-green. Rose is making his sixth career start at the Heritage but just his second since the 2008 edition. He has a pair of top 15s as notables on his tournament resume.

The Englishman snapped a winless stretch that dated back to the 2019 Farmers Insurance Open. What did that do for his confidence? “I feel like my game isn’t ready to win every tournament that I play, but I do feel like I’m on an awesome progression and I feel like there’s tons of runway ahead of me to continue to improve this season and going forward.” Rose will be making his 13th appearance at Riviera Country Club this week. He has four top 20s on his resume but not the steadiest record with eight of his 12 previous trips landing outside of the top 35. In other news, Rose was one of the latest to be announced to the TGL Monday Night Golf League, “I think it’s just a new exciting format, an exciting way to see guys compete together in maybe an informal environment but where there’s the opportunity to have a little bit of banter and obviously some team spirit and camaraderie.”

The Englishman posted ho-hum traditional metrics, T72 in fairways hit and T40 GIR this week, but colored his scorecard with an ace (round two at Spyglass Hill), and two eagles while dropping just five shots along the way. “I think the format this week, playing with amateurs, kind of just mellowed me out to the point where I let it happen. I let my good golf come forward. It’s obviously a learning lesson in that.” This will go in the books as his 11th PGA TOUR win and first since the 2019 Farmers Insurance Open when he was still World No. 1 golfer. He had entered this week at 71st in the OWGR but jumps back up to 35th with this win.

The Englishman took on Monterey Peninsula CC in round three and traded one bogey with one birdie on the first eight holes. From there, he stuck his tee shot at the difficult, par-3 ninth but got a little unlucky to see it roll further from the hole, with the horn blowing for that very reason (balls not stopping at the 9th). “I hit a 5-wood miraculously to three feet right before they blew the horn. As I was going to mark my ball it blew seven feet down the green. So I kind of faced that 7-footer overnight in my mind. Kind of one of those moments you come out in the morning, you make the putt and the momentum was up and running.” That birdie at the par-3 ninth propelled him to a 5-under 32 on the homeward nine. This will be his 17th career 54-hole lead or co-lead on the PGA TOUR but pretty unique in that he won’t be sleeping on a lead, at least not yet, as he’ll hop right back out on the course for final-round action. Rose has gone on to win five of those events when holding the 54-hole lead or a piece of the lead.

Rose likely won’t make up a seven-shot deficit to catch Tony Finau for the win, although he did take down Dustin Johnson from a similar position to win a WGC-HSBC Champions a few years back. The Englishman has basically been missing in action since the U.S. Open, failing to finish inside the top 50 in five subsequent starts. But a 4-under 66 Saturday doubled his weekly score, and at 8 under he’s alongside Wyndham Clark and Tyson Alexander. Rose has now dropped to No. 75 in the world rankings, but Saturday he played more like a former world No. 1 while carding five birdies amid difficult scoring conditions. In lieu of his 11th Tour win, he’ll be looking for just his third top-10 finish of the year to go along with a T-6 at Torrey Pines and a T-4 finish in Canada in June.

It’s been a tough year for the Englishman, especially lately as he arrived on the heels of two missed cuts and a WD in his last three worldwide starts. He found just one top 5 last season and one other top 10, a sharp decline from his peak performance levels. “it’s been a year to forget really for the most part, but I’ve had six or seven weeks back at home just trying to get 100 percent feeling good with my body. So that’s been the positive of the last couple weeks is I’m feeling good.” Staying healthy is a good first step while heating up the flat stick works wonders, as well. Rose gained 2.2 strokes putting today (8th) to help him move up the board on a tough day for scoring. Rose will attempt to keep his pace rolling for three more days at Memorial Park, potentially ending the fall schedule on a high note.

Rose, 41, arrived off a T69 (of 72) at last week’s Scottish Open and was scheduled in Game 10 at 8:14 am local with 2018 champion Francesco Molinari (Carnoustie) and countryman Tommy Fleetwood. It was to be his 20th appearance in the championship with a best of T2, two shy to Molinari in 2018, and had finished T46 last year at Royal St. George’s for his seventh straight made cut in the event. The Englishman’s WD as the World No. 50 drops the field to 48 of the Top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking, while his fill-in Hoshino (World No. 70) will be making his seventh overall major appearance and second at The Open after a missed cut by five last year on 6-over 146 (74-72) as then-World No. 81. Hoshino’s best PGA TOUR finish in 12 events is a T26 at the 121st U.S. Open (Torrey Pines) in 2021 on 3-over 287 (69-74-73-71). Daniel Berger (No. 26) is the other player from the OWGR Top 50 that is not in the field this week at St Andrews, removing his name last Friday as he continues to navigate a sacroiliac joint sprain from February.

The Englishman, who arrived off a season-best T4 and a near-59 on Sunday at last week’s Canadian Open, is grouped the first two rounds with fellow past champs Gary Woodland and Bryson DeChambeau, who he beat today by one and three shots, respectively. On seven (of 14) fairways and 11 greens in regulation, he squared four bogeys at 10, 12, 14 and 8, offset by six birdies at 11, 13, 14, 17, 18 and 5, losing 0.24 strokes off-the-tee but gaining 1.31 on approach and 2.20 with the flat stick. The 2013 winner at Merion GC in Pennsylvania has recorded 40 top 25s in 72 previous majors, including a T13 at the 104th PGA in Tulsa four weeks ago (71-70-71-68), and arrived 78th in the FedExCup standings, having missed the FEC Playoffs last season (126th) for the first time since the advent of the season-long points race in 2007, lowlighted by missed cuts at the 120th and 121st U.S. Opens. See link below to post-round comments.

The 41-year-old was making his fourth appearance, first since 2006, and matches a best of T4 on debut in 2004 (Glen Abbey GC). He also matches the course record with one other, the tournament course record with two others, and his career low in 1,301 rounds, joining a 12-under version in R1 at the 2006 FUNAI Classic at Walt Disney World (Palm Course), where he finished fourth. The Englishman, who bags his second top 10 of the season in 14 events (T6, Farmers), had a legit chance at 59, which would’ve been the first since Scottie Scheffler (-12) at the 2020 THE NT, but walked off with bogey-5 (missed par-saver from 18'2") after airmailing the target by 30 yards after a drive in the right intermediate. On 10 (of 13) fairways and 14 greens in regulation, he gained 6.875 strokes tee-to-green and 1.725 on-the-green with 24 total putts, camouflaging three squares at holes 9 (missed par-saver from 4'10"), 16 (failed sand save) and 18, with seven birdies at 2, 5, 7, 10, 12, 14 and 17, a hole-out eagle-2 at 1 from 137 yards out, and two eagle-3s at 11 (29'3") and 15 (6'9"). Afterwards (link below): “I’m totally disappointed, yeah. Because you know what’s at stake, for sure. You’re really just playing the last hole -- I never shot 59 before -- so it would have been a lovely footnote on the week.”