Justin Rose started the day at the Farmers Insurance Open with a six-shot lead and fired three birdies and one bogey for a 2-under 70 to reach 23-under and win by seven shots.
This was the Englishman’s 13th PGA Tour title in his 447th start at the age of 45 years, 6 months and 2 days. He is the first player 45 years or older since Loren Roberts (2000 Greater Milwaukee Open) to win by seven or more strokes.
He holds the most wins on Tour of any player from England since 1940 (next: Nick Faldo/9 wins).
“There’s always nerves. There’s always that sort of — I had a sort of realization on the golf course today that it’s a lot easier being on the golf course than it is thinking about it the night before,” said Rose.
“Your mind will go to certain holes, certain tee shots and in the back of your mind you’re already sort of stressing about it. When you’re actually on the golf course and you have the club in your hand and you are willing to be committed, it’s never as bad as you kind of think. So that’s kind of a nice realization to have on the golf course rather than the other way around.”
Rose is the 85th player in Tour history to reach 13 wins and moves to T73 on the all-time wins list. The 2018 FedExCup champion becomes the ninth player to have 13 victories or more including a FedExCup title (Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, Scottie Scheffler, Jim Furyk, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth).
With this win, Rose became the oldest wire-to-wire winner on Tour since Rocco Mediate (2010 Procore Championship/47 years) and the oldest winner of the Famers Insurance Open (previous: Marty Furgol/1959/43).
265 (-23) marks the lowest 72-hole score in tournament history (previous 266: George Burns/1987, Tiger Woods/1999) and the seven-stroke margin is the largest margin of victory at the event since Tiger Woods in 2008 (8 strokes). Rose had also earlier set new 54- and 36-hole records.
“First and foremost, it’s an amazing thing to win any time any place by one, by whoever, wherever on any golf course,” he said.
“But when you start to think about some of the way this week unfolded, it really is probably incredibly special. I think the 36-hole, 54-, 72-hole scoring record. The fact I think I was able to kind of build my lead each day, you know, extend my lead each day is something that obviously as a player I’m proud of where you can kind of feel like you can play with that pressure from day one, go wire-to-wire and kind of keep progressing and keep moving forward. Maybe that’s something that I haven’t been able to achieve before either, so a lot of self-satisfaction in that one.
“This has always been sort of one of my favorite tournaments to come to, whether it just be the San Diego area, the Del Mar area, the golf course itself. Even though the golf course has been hit or miss for me, I kind of feel like I played well or not. I think last year I missed the cut at both the Farmers and the Genesis that we had here in that one year.
“But anyway, not to talk about that. But yeah, just what a week from start to finish. I think it was sort of, 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 putt at the right time. There was a lot of sort of real I guess mental maturity from a strategic golf point of view out there, which, you know, 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 that they do really well week in and week out and I feel like that’s something that I did really, really well this week.”
Pierceson Coody fired nine birdies and two bogeys for a 7-under 65, the low round of the day, to reach 16-under and collect his second runner-up finish in his 56th start on Tour (2024 ISCO Championship).
Sharing second place was Korean Si Woo Kim who made just one bogey for a 69, earning his best finish since the 2023 CJ CUP Byron Nelson (T2). This marks his second consecutive top-10 of the season (T6/The American Express).
Japan’s Ryo Hisatsune also finished runner-up, his best result in his 65th start (previous: T3/2024 Wyndham Championship) having made three bogeys for a 69.
Jake Knapp of the United States made three bogeys to record a 67 and finish T5 at 15-under alongside Germany’s Stephan Jaeger who also made three bogeys for a 68.
Making his first start in a non-major on the PGA Tour since the 2022 WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play via the Returning Member Program, Brooks Koepka signed for a 70 having made three bogeys to finish T56 at 4-under in his 187th start and fifth at the Farmers Insurance Open.
Aon Swing 5
The Farmers Insurance Open is the third of a four-tournament stretch for players to earn FedExCup towards the Aon Swing 5 with entry into the next two Signature Events. The top five players, not otherwise exempt, who earn the most FedExCup points during the Sony Open in Hawaii, The American Express, the Farmers Insurance Open and the WM Phoenix Open will qualify for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Genesis Invitational.
Aon Swing 5 Leaderboard through the Farmers Insurance Open:
• 1. Pierceson Coody – 306.5 points
• 2. Matt McCarty – 235.25 points
• 3. Patrick Rodgers – 229.792 points
• 4. Ryo Hisatsune – 217.125 points
• 5. Andrew Putnam – 183.75 point
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