![\"2259464339\"\/](\"https:\/\/golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com\/content\/dam\/images\/golfdigest\/fullset\/2026\/2\/GettyImages-2259464339.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.966.644.suffix\/1770000405347.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nSAN DIEGO \u2014 After crushing both the Farmers Insurance Open field and the Torrey Pines Golf Courses in a record-breaking victory, Justin Rose was savoring the moment on Sunday evening 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.<\/p>\n
Then again, we challenge them to fault the premise.<\/p>\n
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 over these last four days, early in the Englishman\u2019s 28th year as a pro.<\/p>\n
MORE Justin Rose\u2019s win was special to the caddie who missed his last victory at Torrey Pines<\/p>\n
Rose shot 62-65-68-70 and his 23-under 265 total surpassed the previous record held by Woods (1999) and George Burns (1987)\u2014both reaching the mark when Torrey Pines was a pushover compared to the brute the South Course became ahead of the 2008 U.S. Open.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s tour event by being the sole leader after every round since Tommy Bolt did it in 1955\u201413 years before the event moved to Torrey Pines.<\/p>\n
Now the oldest player to win the tournament\u2014in the last year that it\u2019s being sponsored by Farmers Insurance\u2014Rose carved up Torrey Pines the same way he did when he won here 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 SG\/putting (3.53).<\/p>\n
It was a masterful display of shotmaking and strategy, which brought him to his own comparisons to some of the greats.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Orlando Ramirez<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a week from start to finish,\u201d said Rose. \u201cI 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere 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\u2014Jack, Tiger, I\u2019m going to say Scottie Scheffler now as well. That\u2019s the sort of thing they do week in and week out, and I feel like that\u2019s something that I did really, really well this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, much is being made about Rose\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take pride out of it\u2014that I\u2019m doing something that\u2019s not easy to do,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t wake up in the morning believe that narrative, either.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sahith Theegala, who is 28 and finished nine shots behind the winner on Sunday, has gotten 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he\u2019s doing at 45 is unbelievable,\u201d Theegala said. \u201cJust 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. \u2026 He kind of does it all. He\u2019s very, very impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Theegala opined that Rose hasn\u2019t received nearly the attention he should. \u201cSomehow, I feel like he\u2019s flown under the radar for 20-plus years,\u201d he said. \u201cNo. 1 in the world, major champ, gold medalist, whatever. You name it, you feel like he\u2019s done it. So to be playing potentially some of the best golf of his life now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know he wants to win majors really bad. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if he snags one this year at all, especially after last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, if there is a smudge on Rose\u2019s career, it\u2019s that he\u2019s won only a single major while finishing solo or joint second five times. He tied for second in 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 a playoff to Rory McIlroy.<\/p>\n
Those are sources of tremendous motivation for him.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Orlando Ramirez<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that maybe I would say I\u2019ve had some rounds last year\u2014whether it be Sunday at Augusta or \u2026 Saturday of the Ryder Cup, [or] some of the golf this week, to be honest,\u201d Rose said. \u201cI 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. \u2026 But at least knowing it\u2019s there kind of builds a lot of confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s tour season.<\/p>\n
In the early days of LIV\u2019s formation in 2022, Rose was among the players approached about joining the league\u2014with a sizeable signing bonus on the table, no doubt. But he turned them down, as he said on Sunday, because \u201cI kind of always felt like my childhood self wouldn\u2019t feel very good about making that decision and kind of giving up\u201d on the dreams of winning majors and meaningful tour titles. Safe to say, he has no regrets.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say, sniffing and knocking on the door of a couple majors since those decisions were made and those [other] moments \u2026 it did validate the decision,\u201d Rose said. \u201cThe way things are in the world of golf right now, I feel like it\u2019s good to see people wanting to kind of play where it motivates them to be their best.\u201d<\/p>\n
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO \u2014 After crushing both the Farmers Insurance Open field and the Torrey Pines Golf Courses in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,1379,755,138747,44,85],"class_list":["post-452840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-article","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-features","tag-golf","tag-golf-digest","tag-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}