Perhaps Joel Dahmen said it best when asked Saturday what it was going to take for him to catch Justin Rose.
“My only hope is if he doesn’t set his alarm,” Dahmen started, speaking of Rose’s six-shot lead going into the final round, the second-largest in the history of the Farmers Insurance Open. And unfortunately for Dahmen and the rest of the field, Rose didn’t sleep in but showed up to Torrey Pines South Course in La Jolla, California, and put an exclamation point on arguably the most dominant week of his career.
The 45-year-old Rose became the first wire-to-wire winner of the Farmers since Tommy Bolt in 1955, finishing at 23-under 265 for the week, a tournament scoring record. Rose started in spectacular fashion on the North Course, signing for 10-under 62, and he never looked back, increasing his lead every day before a relatively stress-free stroll above the Pacific Ocean on Sunday leading to his 13th PGA Tour title.
“It’s an amazing thing to win any time any place by one, by whoever, wherever on any golf course,” Rose said. “But yeah, when you start to think about some of the way this week unfolded, it really is probably incredibly special. Like you say, 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.”
On a golf course that’s normally known for its stoutness and difficult test, Rose made it his personal playground, earning his second win at the Farmers (first in 2019). It’s also his second victory in recent months, in addition to his playoff triumph at the FedEx St. Jude Championship.
Rose’s week was hard to encapsulate in words. He sucked the air out of Torrey Pines, setting the 36-hole and 54-hole scoring records while having his opponents chasing second place. He was incredible approaching the greens, gaining nearly seven shots on the field. On Saturday when Rose shot 4-under 68, he lost a stroke on the greens but still grew his lead.
On Sunday, he fist pumped after a clutch par save on 4. Then on the par-5 sixth, he hit his approach inside 10 feet, and though he missed the eagle putt, birdie was confirmation the Farmers was Rose’s. The only thing left to be determined was the margin of victory, which ended up being seven over Pierceson Coody, Si Woo Kim and Ryo Hisatsune.
“There’s always nerves,” Rose said. “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.
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. “
Added birdies on the eighth and ninth helped Rose turn in 3-under 33 and two shots ahead of the tournament scoring record. His lead was seven. Any hope the chasers may have had was crushed when he birdied three of the last four holes on the front nine, making any mistakes on the back nine irrelevant.
Rose added one bogey on the scorecard, coming at No. 12, a hole he birdied every time this week on the South Course. But he just continued to have comfortable pars all the way in, taking any and all drama out of the final round.
“I don’t think I can work much harder, I think I just need to be patient with myself when the weeks slip by that aren’t great and just know that it’s still there,” Rose said of his recent hard work. “Just know I’m pretty good at sort of gearing up for the weeks I want to play well and I think having that sort of experience to do that. And obviously yeah, listen, I’d love to find a way to play well every single week, but if I can kind of find a way to hone in on the weeks that I really want to play well, that would be enough for me to chase down some of the goals I have left in my career.”
