Rose eyes $10m prize as he closes in on world No 1 spot
After a brilliant 63 in the second round of the BMW Championship, Justin Rose knows there is more resting on his performance than a mere $10 million, or the little matter of going into the Ryder Cup on a high. Should Rose win in Philadelphia tomorrow, he would become the world No1.
On 11 under, the 38-year-old is in outright second, two behind American Xander Schauffele, who would give himself a huge shout of earning the final US Ryder Cup wildcard with victory at Aronimink.
On a day when Tiger Woods and Rory Mcilroy failed to repeat their 62 heroics of Thursday – shooting 70 and 69 respectively – Rose was the heavyweight who pummelled the saturated layout harder than anyone.
There were seven birdies and no bogeys on his scorecard and more than 140 feet of holed putts on his stats sheet. Rose’s highlight was converting a 60-footer up and over the slope on the par-four 13th. “It bobbled on a spike mark and that knocked it in,” Rose said with a laugh. “But hey, I’ll take it.”
Rose is a win waiting to happen and it could just prove to set up the biggest cheque of his life. This is the penultimate leg in the Fedex Cup play-offs and after finishing second at the Dell Technologies Championship on Monday, Rose is right in the mix for the outrageous bonus due to the leader in the standings at the conclusion of the Tour Championship in Atlanta on the Sunday immediately preceding the Ryder Cup in Paris.
With the chance to become the fourth Englishman to top the rankings, there is clearly so much riding on the next few week, although at the moment Rose is intent on simply completing the job in hand before a week off.
Certainly, the back niggle which blighted his US PGA challenge is now long forgotten. “When I got to Boston last week I just wanted to put eight rounds of golf together and see where it took me in terms of the Fedex and the rankings and everything,” he said. “I’m threequarters of the way there and it’s going pretty well. I won here in 2010 [at the AT&T National] and I have great memories to feed off. That was a very good round today.”
Rose’s mood was in stark contrast to that of Woods. After taking 27 putts in the first round, there were 33 yesterday and his frustration following the three-putt on the 18th was as obvious as it was understandable. “It’s very simple, I just didn’t make any putts,” Woods said. “That round was easily six or seven under and it turned into even par.”
Brooks Koepka (in a tie for 38th on two under) and Justin Thomas (in a tie for seventh on nine under) could also displace Dustin Johnson (in a tie for 47th on two under) in the race for the world No 1 spot.
On the European Tour, Japan’s Hideto Tanihara took a two-shot advantage in the European Masters in Crans over defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick, the Dane Lucas Bjerregaard and American Doug Ghim.