Justin Rose Makes Incredible History at Torrey Pines
Tiger Woods holds a ton of records on the PGA Tour, but after this weekend, he's looking up at Justin Rose in one area. Rose just had a fantastic outing on Tour over the weekend, and he set the record for scoring at Torrey Pines, which is ironically where Woods' Genesis Invitational was last year.
Rose dominated the Farmers Insurance field, which included Ryo Hisatsune, Stephan Jaeger, Hideki Matsuyama, Tony Finau, Brooks Koepka (in his return to the PGA Tour), and Keegan Bradley, among others. Not a single one of them ever really threatened Rose.
Justin Rose sets Torrey Pines record
By the time the final round came around, Justin Rose was pretty much guaranteed to win. So instead of worrying about the rest of the field, Rose could concern himself with someone not playing: Tiger Woods. He holds the record at Torrey Pines, or at least, he did.
Rose shot -23 over four rounds, breaking the record Woods set in 1999. 27 years later, Rose now owns the record. He jokingly apologized to Woods on the broadcast after breaking the legendary golfer's longstanding scoring record.
Usually, golfers will say they weren't worried about history and were just taking it hole by hole and trying to win the tournament. Rose didn't bother to pretend. "I was keenly aware of it, actually," Rose said via ESPN. "It was the only thing I was focused on the last three holes."
In doing so, Rose also became the first person to lead wire-to-wire at the venue since Tommy Bolt did it in 1955. At 45, Rose seems to be finding a new wind for his golf career. He rose to third in the world, the highest ranking for someone his age or older since Vijay Singh in 2008.
Rose has put in a ton of excellent outings in the last calendar year and all at impressive venues like Torrey Pines. It proves to him that he's still got it. "Those days or those weeks or those rounds are definitely showing me that the gas is still in the tank," Rose said. "Obviously, accessing it is the job now. How do I do that more often? That's always the trick, but at least knowing it's there is builds a lot of confidence," he said.
Justin Rose reflects on LIV offer
This outing was important for the PGA Tour, but not because of Justin Rose. It marked Brooks Koepka's official return from LIV Golf. Patrick Reed is ineligible right now, but he also followed suit back to the Tour.
Unsurprisingly, Rose got an offer from LIV as well. At a point, the tour was trying to get everyone they could involved, and that meant offering Rose a small fortune like they did to so many other golfers. He, obviously, turned it down. Rose reflected on it after the historic outing.
"My career goals (majors) have always only been attainable by staying on the European tour and the PGA Tour because access to them is not possible the other way," he said. "I want to play among the best players in the world. That obviously for me is what keeps me motivated, what keeps me hungry, what keeps me pushing."
Rose is probably feeling very justified in his decision. Not only did he beat Koepka in his highly-anticipated return to Tour, but he has proven that he can still golf at an extremely high level. Many older golfers, like Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, and Sergio Garcia, turned to LIV to cash out in their advanced age.
Justin Rose did not, however, and with the stars of LIV returning and him playing the best golf he ever has on the PGA Tour, it'd be hard to fault him for feeling good about that decision to turn down the money.
