WGC-HSBC Champions: Justin Rose triumphs as Dustin Johnson collapses
Justin Rose comes back from eight strokes down to win WGC-HSBC Champions in dramatic fashion
Winning on the PGA TOUR is hard. Sounds obvious, right? To folks like you and me, of course. But when we’re talking about the sport’s elite, it’s easy to forget. We all got a stark reminder of that fact on Sunday at the WGC-HSBC Champions, when Justin Rose came back from an eight-stroke deficit to take the victory that seemed destined for Dustin Johnson.
The finale at Sheshan looked like DJ’s victory lap. He had done everything right for three days, going 68-63-68 through 54 holes. Up by six, and with the reeling Brooks Koepka still his next closest competitor, even level par on Sunday looked like it would get the job done.
Golf is a fickle game, however, and on Sunday, Johnson simply didn’t have it. His bogey-free 77 wasn’t the worst round of the day – that title goes to David Lipsky’s 82, which dropped him from 15th to 58th place – but it came at the worst possible time. And it opened the door for a wild finish.
While much will be made of Johnson’s collapse, don’t let that take a thing away from Justin Rose’s ascent. The 37-year-old played steady and solid – if unspectacular – golf through the first three rounds. His third-round 72 brought him into the final round at -9. Sure, he was eight off the lead, but he was just two shots behind Koepka in second. The mission was clear: make up as many shots as you can, and let the chips fall where they may.
And fall they most certainly did.
Rose’s comeback was the third-largest in PGA TOUR history
Justin Rose is a major champion and Olympic gold medalist. He’s seen just about everything there is to see in professional golf. And as much as he wanted to win on Sunday, even he had to be honest with himself – second place would have been pretty good, too.
"“Yeah, I would say that. Yeah, second place was probably — I think whenever you’re playing behind someone with a lead, [you] try and win the other golf tournament,” Rose said. “That’s always my mentality. And then just see what happens. The leader, you never expect him to have a bad day, but just in case, play for second.”"
Rose might not have been keeping too close of a watch on the scoreboard early, but as Johnson kept giving back ground, nobody on the grounds at Sheshan could ignore it. Rose told media after the tournament that he started to sense he had a chance midway through his back nine.
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"“Fortunately I got a little bit of help from DJ but then it sort of almost began to change for me on I would say 13. I rolled in a putt at 13 to get to [11 under]. I felt like I had some momentum going there, and I knew DJ was maybe at 15, 14. That’s when it was at least on, right.”"
That’s the main reason why Rose now has eight career PGA TOUR victories, along with ten more on the European Tour. We saw it at Augusta when he battled Sergio Garcia, and we saw it again this week in China. With a star-studded WGC leaderboard, Rose handled his business.
The loss is on DJ, but this win is 100 percent Rose’s. And don’t be surprised to see more in the year to come.