A Late Addition to the Schedule Pays Off in the Biggest Way Possible for Justin Rose
PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — When Justin Rose sat back in England drawing up his 2023 schedule, Pebble Beach was not on it.
The 42-year-old had penciled in Hawaii, Palm Springs and then back to San Diego and the Farmers Insurance Open, the site of his last win, at two-shot victory over Adam Scott in 2019.
When the time came to go to the Sony Open, Rose felt he wasn’t ready and that’s when he made a change and decided to start in Palm Springs, then go to San Diego and add Pebble Beach.
The serendipitous decision produced his 11th PGA Tour victory and ended a winless drought of four long years and 80 tournaments worldwide, including 67 on the PGA Tour.
When Rose won at Torrey Pines, he did it as the world No. 1. He entered this week at the AT&T at 75th and leaves as 35th, his highest ranking since a T2 at the Saudi International in February 2021 when he moved to 33rd in the world.
"Serendipity" may be the theme of this win for Rose, who is best known for winning the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club and the gold medal in the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Rose wasn’t happy with his equipment, so coming into the week and out of the blue, changed to new irons and new shafts.
Generally, such a change would be a no-no, but Rose said it made things a little bit easier on three-quarter shots into the greens, which you needed this week to take a bit of spin of the ball.
With the wind blowing the hardest on an exposed Shore course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club in Saturday’s third round, Rose called the rules official over on the par-3 9th hole when his ball would not stop moving on the green.
Because of balls moving on the 9th and 15th greens, the third round was suspended for the day and restarted on Sunday morning.
“That was just a moment that, I guess if you are out here long enough on Tour occasionally you catch on a good break,” Rose said of the suspension. “So that was a good one.”
When Rose arrived in calmer conditions on Sunday morning, he birdied the 9th right out of the gate and then added three more birdies and an eagle, moving him from the middle of the pack into the lead.
It would be a lead he would never relinquish, including when he restarted the final round. On Monday, Rose started on the 10th hole and while he didn’t birdie it, he made a significant up-and down that included a 4-footer for par that he pointed to after the round as important.
“I felt like that was a big momentum maker, I suppose,” Rose said. “To miss from short range early would have been kind of just a frustrating start. But to make that putt was awesome.”
Rose followed it up burying a 30-footer and then added birdies on the 13th and 14th to shut the door on the rest of the field that, with the exception of Brendon Todd, seemed content to play for second.
When Rose walked off of the 18th hole at Pebble Beach after Thursday’s first round, the Englishman had just dealt with his ball struggling to stay in place as the wind was blowing off the water.
Rose signed for a 3-under 69 that included a bogey at the last and then said afterwards that that due to the driving wind—including being sandblasted by the sand blowing out of the greenside bunker—he was hoping he could just make bogey from 10 feet.
“It's been trending, I'd say, you know, still kind of conscious that like, I feel like I'm manually turning the cogs a little bit,” Rose said on Thursday. “But, you know, we're getting to see, the bad shots aren't as bad, and consistency is coming back.”
Was this prophetic?
Rose now leaves the Monterrey Peninsula with a Masters invite, the 10th spot on the FedEx Cup list and likely a position on the European Ryder Cup team if he continues to play well.
Not a bad decision to skip Sony after all.