Johnson stumbles, Rose stuns for win
SHANGHAI — Justin Rose posed with the trophy from the balcony high above the 18th green at Sheshan International Golf Club, a moment that didn’t seem possible.
He started the final round of the HSBC Champions tournament eight shots behind Dustin Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world.
“The beginning of the day, I was playing for second,” Rose said.
The final World Golf Championships event of the year turned into a shocker in Shanghai when Johnson went into the PGA Tour record books for all the wrong reasons.
Instead of becoming the first player to win three WGC titles in one year, he tied a record for losing the largest lead in the final round. Six shots clear of the field, Johnson didn’t make a single birdie on a wild, wind-blown Sunday for a collapse that even Rose didn’t see coming.
Only when he saw a leaderboard behind the 14th green and realized he was three shots behind did Rose think he might have a chance. He got up and down with a tough bunker shot for birdie. He made a 10-foot par save at the 15th to stay in the game. He birdied the next two holes.
And as Rose was signing for a 5-under-par 67, he looked up and saw Johnson’s last hope for eagle on the 18th tumble off the side of the green and into the water.
“It’s the kind of day you certainly don’t expect,” Rose said after his two-shot victory. “It’s the kind of a day you hope for — dream for — but a lot of things need to go your way in order for a day like today to happen, coming from eight shots behind, especially going against a player like D.J.”
Johnson certainly did his part. He shot a 77, his highest final round with the lead since an 82 in the 2010 U.S. Open.
“I just could never get anything going and didn’t hole any putts,” Johnson said. “It was pretty simple.”
It was simply stunning. Johnson matched the record for losing a sixshot lead, most recently by Sergio Garcia at Quail Hollow in 2005 and most famously by Greg Norman in the 1996 Masters.
The one-man show turned into a four-man race in the final hour, and Rose seized on it with a 31 on the back nine. He finished at 14-under 274. Johnson tied for second with Henrik Stenson (70) and Brooks Koepka (71), who also had their chances.
Only two other players in PGA Tour history have come from more than eight shots behind on the final day to win — Paul Lawrie (10 shots) in the 1999 British Open and Stewart Cink (nine shots) at Hilton Head in 2004.
Rose won for the first time since capturing the gold medal at the Olympics last summer in Rio de Janeiro. He now has won every year since 2010.
“It was the perfect type of weather conditions to make a comeback,” Rose said. “This is the type of day when you are playing with a lead, every hole seems difficult. Obviously, someone is still capable of playing a special round of golf. And my back nine was just
amazing today.”
The signature shot was a 5-iron he purposely threw up into the wind on the par-3 17th and watched the ball land some three feet behind the hole. That gave him the lead over Stenson, and no one caught him.
Armour strolls to win
JACKSON, Miss. — Ryan Armour shot a 4-under 68 to earn an impressive first PGA Tour career win at the Sanderson Farms Championship.
Armour, 41, started the final round at the Country Club of Jackson with a five-shot lead and was never seriously challenged. He won for the first time in 105 career starts, finishing at 19 under for a five-shot victory over Chesson Hadley (68).
Jonathan Randolph, a Jackson-area native playing on his home course, took third by shooting a 67 and finishing at 12 under. Smylie Kaufman (68), Scott Strohmeyer (71) and Brian Stuard (70) shared fourth another two strokes back.
Athens, Tenn., native Eric Axley (74) tied for 34th at 3 under, while Chattanooga’s Stephan Jaeger (73) shared 51st at 1 under.
Langer takes playoff
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — Bernhard Langer made a 30-foot birdie putt on the second playoff hole to beat Miguel Angel Jimenez in the PowerShares QQQ Championship for his second victory in two events of the Charles Schwab Cup playoffs.
Langer missed a similar putt on the first extra hole, where both he and Jimenez made par. He was perfect on the second for his third win in four tournaments and seventh victory of the season.
Langer and Jimenez, who shared the 36-hole lead with David Toms, both shot 5-under 67 in the final round to force the playoff at 11-under 205. Toms, winless in his first season on the senior tour, had a 69 to finish two shots back in third.
Langer leads the Schwab Cup points standings and is followed by Scott McCarron, Kenny Perry, Jimenez and Kevin Sutherland. The points now reset, and any of the top five can win the cup and $1 million bonus with a victory in the Schwab Cup Championship at Phoenix Country Club on Nov. 10-12.
Kerr hits milestone
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Cristie Kerr holed a 35-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a par round of 71 and a one-shot victory in the LPGA Tour’s Sime Darby tournament.
Kerr was in a four-way tie for the lead until her big putt made her the 27th player in tour history with 20 victories.
She won by one shot over Jacqui Concolino (67), Feng Shanshan (71) and Danielle Kang (66).
The 40-year-old American became the first player in her 40s to win on tour since Catriona Matthew won the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in 2011 at age 42. Kerr, who won for the second time this year, finished at 15-under 269.