Justin Rose (1 US Open, 1 Olympic Gold, 4 Ryder Cup's.)

1980

Justin Peter RoseMBE (born 30 July 1980) is an English professional golfer who plays most of his golf on the PGA Tour, while keeping his membership on the European Tour. He won his first major championship at the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club, becoming the first English player to win a major since Nick Faldo in 1996 and the first to win the U.S. Open since Tony Jacklin in 1970. At the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Rose won gold at the men's individual tournament. With that victory, Rose joined Hall of Fame members Gary PlayerDavid GrahamHale Irwin and Bernhard Langer as one of only five golfers to win official tournaments on all six continents on which golf is played. Rose has also twice been runner-up at the Masters Tournament, in 2015 and 2017.

He first came to prominence as an amateur at the 1998 Open Championship where he holed a dramatic shot from the rough at the final hole to finish in a tie for fourth place. He won the 2007 Order of Merit on the European Tour and was ranked in the World top ten for 34 weeks between November 2007 and July 2008. In March 2012, Rose won his first World Golf Championship event at the WGC-Cadillac Championship and as a result he re-entered the world top 10. After finishing second to Tiger Woods in the 2013 Arnold Palmer Invitational, he rose to a career high world ranking of 3rd.[2]

Rose was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to English parents, and moved to England at the age of five where he started to play golf seriously at Tylney Park Golf Club, near his then home in HookHampshire. Rose broke 70 for the first time at the age of 11, and was a plus three handicap by 14. He played in the Walker Cup in 1997 as a 17-year-old.

At the age of 17, Rose burst to world-wide prominence at 1998 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale. He holed a dramatic shot from the rough from about 50 yards for birdie on the 18th hole, to finish in a tie for fourth. He won the silver medal for the low amateur. The following day he turned professional.

Rose is an advocate of sustainable golf facilities and works as an ambassador to the STRI's Golf Environment Awards, hosting receptions for winners.[3]

Rose married long-time girlfriend Kate Phillips, a former international gymnast, in December 2006. They have a house in Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando, Florida, and a riverside flat in the London suburb of Putney. Kate gave birth to their first child, a son, Leo, in February 2009.[4] In January 2012, they had a baby girl, Lottie.[5]

On 30 December 2016, it was announced that Rose had been awarded an MBE for services to golf following his Olympic gold medal.[6]

After turning professional, Rose struggled badly in his early career. He missed the cut in his first 21 consecutive events. He earned his first European Tour card in 1999 when he finished 4th at the qualifying school. The following season he failed to retain his card, and had to revisit the qualifying school, where he finished 9th.

Despite his early career struggles, Rose's career soon began to take off and he became established on the European Tour. In 2001 he opened the season with consecutive second place finishes in the country of his birth, South Africa. He went on to finish the year in top-40 on the Order of Merit. He won his first professional event, the Dunhill Championship in South Africa, in 2002, and followed this up with three further victories in that year. They included another win in South Africa at the Nashua Masters, a win on the Japanese Golf Tour at the Crowns Tournament, and then he won his second European Tour title at the Victor Chandler British Masters, edging out Ian Poulter in the final round.

In 2003, Rose reached number 33 in the Official World Golf Ranking. He earned enough money to claim his PGA Tour card as a non-member for 2004 after finishing with more money than the 125th ranked player on the money list. In 2004, he played mostly in America on the PGA Tour, while also maintaining his membership on the European Tour. He did not have a great year and slipped out of the top 50 in the world rankings; however he kept his tour card after earning in excess of a million dollars.

His ranking continued to fall in early 2005, and in March he announced that he was quitting the European Tour and concentrating on playing on the PGA Tour. This had no apparent effect on his poor form, and by the middle of the year he had fallen out of the World's top 100. In August of that year he made an about face by announcing his intention to return to the European Tour. Later the same week he had his best result of the year, leading the Buick Championship after three rounds before slipping to a third place finish. A couple of further good results followed late in the 2005 season, and he maintained his status on the PGA Tour after all.

In September 2006 at the Canadian Open, Rose led a PGA Tour tournament going into the final round for the first time. But he slipped up with a final round 74 which moved him down the field. He went on to finish 2nd at the Valero Texas Open and finished 47th on the money list with US$1.629 million in prize money. In November 2006 he won the Australian Masters, to claim his first title for four years. His renewed consistency, including a top 5 finish at the 2007 Masters which had seen him surpass his previous best world ranking, by reaching number 26 on 8 April 2007.[7]

Rose lost in a playoff at the 2007 BMW PGA Championship, but moved into the top twenty of the World Rankings for the first time, and by October had reached a new career high of 12 and became the top-ranked British golfer. Rose won the European Tour Order of Merit title for 2007 in a thrilling climax to the season at the Volvo Masters, which he won in a playoff on 4 November. His new world ranking of number 7 made him the top-ranked European golfer for the first time,[8] and he subsequently moved up to sixth in the rankings.[9] He has spent over 35 weeks in the top-10 since 2007.[10] Since the end of 2009, Canadian golf instructor Sean Foley coaches Rose.[11][12]

In 2010, Rose had a third place at the Honda Classic, and then he broke through with a victory at the Memorial Tournament with a final round 66 to win by three strokes over Rickie Fowler. This was his first win on American soil.[13] The next day, Rose had to try to qualify for the U.S. Open, along with runner up Rickie Fowler. Neither qualified which raised questions about the qualifications of the U.S. Open.[14] In his first tournament start since his win, at the Travelers Championship two weeks later, Rose led by three shots entering the final round, but fell away to a tie for ninth. His good form continued in the following week's tournament however, where he led by four shots after three rounds, and shot a final-round even par 70 to win his second PGA Tour event – the AT&T National.

In March 2011, Rose had a chance to add to his two PGA Tour titles won in 2010, when he entered the final round at the Transitions Championship with a one stroke lead. However he shot a three-over-par 74, which included four consecutive bogeys in the middle of the round, to finish five shots behind the champion Gary Woodland. In September 2011, Rose won the BMW Championship, the third of the four FedEx Cup playoff events at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club. This was his first title of the year and third career PGA Tour win. Rose entered the week on the playoff bubble at 34th in the standings, knowing that he needed a good finish to make the final event at East Lake Golf Club. The win elevated him to 3rd in the standings and the position of knowing that if he won the Tour Championship he would be the FedEx champion. A flawless round of 63 on the opening day helped Rose to build a four stroke advantage going into the final round, and even though there was a late wobble with a bogey at the par five 15th, Rose recovered and won by two strokes from John Senden.[15] Rose did not enjoy the same success at the Tour Championship though, when a second round 75 ended his chances of winning. He finished the tournament in a tie for 20th place and 5th on the overall FedEx Cup Standings.

In 2012, Rose won his first World Golf Championship event at the WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral Golf Resort & Spa, when he finished one stroke ahead of American Bubba Watson. He entered the final round with a three stroke deficit from Watson, but after a solid final day's play, he took a two stroke advantage down the notoriously difficult par 4 18th finishing hole. He made bogey however after finding the right rough with his tee shot and could not get up and down from the back of the green. This left Watson requiring a birdie on the hardest hole on the course in the final group behind Rose. Watson hit a tremendous iron shot from the right hand rough to within ten feet, but could not make the resulting putt, leaving Rose to celebrate the biggest win of his career.[16] As a result Rose returned to the world's top ten, re-entering at number seven.

At the 2012 PGA Championship, Rose recorded his best ever performance in a major championship with a tie for 3rd finish. He shot a final round of 66 to jump 22 places up the leaderboard after three previous rounds of 69-79-70.

At the 2012 Ryder Cup, Rose played a major part in Team Europe's dramatic comeback against the United States, holing putts of 10, 35 and 12 feet on the final three holes to defeat Phil Mickelson 1-up in the singles and completing Europe's domination of the first five matches.

On 12 October 2012, Rose won the 8-man Turkish Airlines World Golf Final defeating Lee Westwood by a single stroke in the final. He also beat Tiger Woods by a stroke in the semi final, after progressing from his group with a 100% record.

On 25 March 2013, Rose finished second to Tiger Woods at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and rose to a career-high of third in the world rankings.[2]

On 16 June 2013, Rose won his maiden major championship at the U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club by two strokes over Phil Mickelson and Jason Day.[17] He became the first Englishman in 43 years to win the U.S. Open.[18] He also ended a 17 year major drought for English golfers since Nick Faldo's win at the 1996 Masters.

Rose had entered the final round two strokes behind the leader Mickelson at one-over-par, after rounds of 71-69-71 during the first three days. He found himself further back after bogeys at the 3rd and 5th holes, sandwiching a birdie at the 4th. Successive birdies at the 6th and the 7th took him into a share of the lead. He misread his birdie putt at the 11th, which led to a bogey to fall back to one-over for the tournament, as simultaneously Mickelson was holing his second shot from the fairway at the 10th to move into the lead. However, Rose responded with birdies at the 12th and 13th, to get under-par for the tournament and into a one shot lead once again. He could not get up and down from a greenside bunker on the 14th and a further bogey on the 16th dropped Rose back to level for the day, but Mickelson made two bogeys at the 13th and 15th to remain one shot behind Rose.

After a par at the 17th, Rose hit a 4-iron approach to the tough 18th hole, which resulted in a final par of the day to reach the clubhouse at one-over-par. Mickelson, needing a birdie at the last to tie Rose and force a playoff, blocked his drive and could not reach the green in two. In a last attempt, Mickelson ran his pitch shot from below the green up to the pin, but could not hole it, which meant that Rose had claimed his first major championship.[19] Rose moved back up to world number three as a result, equaling his career high ranking.

On 29 June 2014, Rose won the Quicken Loans National, beating Shawn Stefani at the first hole of a playoff, with both players having tied at 3 under par after 72 holes.[20] Two weeks later, Rose won the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.

At the 2014 Ryder Cup held at the PGA Centenary Course at the Gleneagles Hotel, Rose emerged as the leading points-getter, amassing 4 points in a 3-0-2 performance, which aided Europe to a 16.5-11.5 victory over the United States of America, marking the 3rd time in a row that Europe claimed the cup, and the 6th time out of the last 7 playings of the event.

At the 2015 Masters Tournament, Rose finished in a tie for second with Phil Mickelson behind winner Jordan Spieth. Rose's 14-under 274 (as well as Mickelson's) was the lowest score by a runner-up in Masters history. He picked up his seventh PGA Tour win at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in April[21] and added his eighth European Tour win at the UBS Hong Kong Open in October, claiming a narrow 1 stroke triumph after battling Lucas Bjerregaard of Denmark head-to-head over the weekend. .[22]

Rose publicly focused on the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, where golf was returning as a full event for the first time since 1904 in St. Louis. On the opening day, he became the first ever player to make a hole-in-one in Olympic play after recording it on the 189-yard par-3 4th hole of Gil Hanse's new Olympic Course in Barra da Tijuca using a 7-iron.[23] Described as having an inspiring effect on the rest of the Great Britain team, Rose later gave the golf ball from that hole-in-one to gymnast Nile Wilson, who would go on to win a bronze medal in the horizontal bar.[24]

Rose went to the 18th hole on Sunday tied at −15 with playing partner Henrik Stenson of Sweden, who had just won the 2016 Open Championship at Royal Troon to become the first Scandinavian man to win a major. Rose then produced a backspin pitch that left him with a short birdie putt, which he converted to become the first golfer to win Olympic gold in 112 years, while Stenson underhit his approach and eventually three-putted for bogey and the silver medal. (American Matt Kuchar claimed the bronze medal after shooting 63 on Sunday.)[25] Shortly thereafter, Rose brought his Olympic gold medal to The Barclays at Bethpage Black and wore it around his neck, on the suggestion of playing partner Phil Mickelson's caddy Jim "Bones" McKay and to cheers from the gallery, during his final putt.[26]

In addition, Rose qualified for the European team at the 2016 Ryder Cup at Hazeltine National, marking his fourth Ryder Cup appearance.

In April 2017, Rose shot opening rounds of 71-72 at the Masters to enter the weekend as one of only a handful of players under par. In the third round, he fired a five-under round of 67 to co-lead through 54 holes with Sergio García. His round consisted of seven birdies, which resulted in a 31 on the back nine to move into contention for his second major championship. Rose lost to García in a sudden-death playoff.[27]