Justin Rose ends PGA Tour drought, conquers Pebble Beach
Justin Rose stood on the 18th tee Monday with a three-shot lead. He knew the only way he could blow it was by hitting his tee shot into the giant blue hazard, also known as the Pacific Ocean, lurking to his left.
As he grabbed his 4-iron and tried to fix his eyes on the safe green grass ahead, his ears heard the waves loudly crashing into the shore. That’s an imposing assault on a golfer’s senses, unique to Pebble Beach.
“Yeah, you’re aware of that,” Rose said, amusingly mimicking the noise of crashing waves. “So that’s something else to deal with, for sure. It’s fantastic.”
Rose conquered the challenge, finishing with a routine par to complete his finalround 66 and win the weather-delayed AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-am. He finished the week at 18-under-par, three strokes clear of Stanford alum Brandon Wu and Brendon Todd.
It was the 11th PGA Tour victory of Rose’s career but his first in four years, since he won the event in San Diego in January 2019.
His experience the past five days also showed what makes Pebble such a distinctive test for top-level golfers. Peer past the invigorating setting — and Monday morning brought sparkling sunshine, shimmering blue water and modest wind — and the old links layout still offers abundant intrigue.
Rose provided another example from the first part of his final round Sunday. His tee shot on No. 6, the uphill par-5, found a bunker left of the fairway, mostly because he was so conscious of what loomed to the right: a steep cliff dropping to Stillwater Cove below.
Rose recovered by smacking an extraordinary bunker shot from 217 yards, leaving himself a 6-foot eagle putt (which he made). But that helps convey what makes Pebble so fascinating: Natural hazards creeping
into your mind and the smallest greens in championship golf versus plenty of vulnerable holes and scoring opportunities.
It’s both daunting and friendly, sometimes changing in a matter of moments. And if Mother Nature unleashes her fury, as she did Saturday, watch out.
As Rose explained, his tee shot Sunday on No. 6 should have been simple — using a 3-wood and trying to hit a 50-yard-wide fairway. But his ball ended up in the left bunker for a logical reason.
“Just the enormity of the Pacific Ocean, the cliff and the sheer magnitude of it all kind of makes you aim 20 yards farther (left) than you should,” Rose said. “That’s what makes those holes great.”
Unlike many courses, power also is not a prerequisite at Pebble. It helps, absolutely, but the course puts a high premium on hitting the ball accurately, especially into those tiny, devilish greens.
This makes Pebble an ideal fit for the U.S. Women’s Open, which be held there for the first time in July. The world’s top women’s players do not crush the ball into distant galaxies the way the men do, but they generally hit the ball straighter.
So this should be an ideal stage for the marquee event in the women’s game.
“Pebble Beach is an iconic venue in golf, so I think it’s awesome the women are coming to play a U.S. Open here,” said Stanford alum Joseph Bramlett, who tied for seventh. “I think they’re going to love it.”
Bramlett, who shot 71 and 69 in his two rounds at Pebble during the AT&T, articulated what makes the course such an uncommon challenge.
“There are a lot of little stretches where you can get on a hot run and feel the momentum,” he said. “The start of the course is very gettable if you keep the ball in play. And as a power player, if you get in a groove, you can really start to tear it up.
“But the course is so unpredictable. I was coasting Saturday, playing great, then all of a sudden, the winds got up to 30 or 40 mph. And hitting the green was a huge accomplishment, which I didn’t do — then I made two straight bogeys not playing poorly. The course can change so fast.”
Rose weathered the changes to pull off his comeback victory. He shot 69-69 in the first two rounds, at Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill, so he awoke Saturday morning tied for 11th.
Then he hopped to life by shooting 65 at Monterey Peninsula’s Shore Course, starting Saturday and finishing Sunday morning, and 66 at Pebble across Sunday and Monday. The outcome allowed Rose to hoist the crystal trophy and pocket the winner’s share of $1.62 million.
It also permitted him to extend an impressive streak. He has been eligible to play in every major championship for more than 12 years, dating to the British Open in 2010. The streak was in jeopardy, because Rose hadn’t qualified for this year’s Masters — until Monday’s win, which earned him a spot at Augusta National in April.
Rose, 42, acknowledged the chance to chase more major titles — he won the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion, outside Philadelphia — is even more meaningful to him at this stage of his career. That’s a big reason he resisted the temptation to defect to LIV Golf, where players face more uncertainty about qualifying for majors.
Asked about bypassing tens of millions of dollars by spurning LIV, Rose said, “It’s not as important as winning a major or two, for sure. And you’ve got to be in it to win it. Just sort of giving up on that opportunity... you’ve got to look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘Is that worth it for me?’”
Briefly: In addition to Wu (tie for second) and Bramlett (T-7), three other players with Bay Area ties finished in the top 20: Michael Kim (T-11), Martin Trainer (T-20) and Mark Hubbard (also T-20) .... Chico’s Kurt Kitayama played with Rose in the final group, but Kitayama shot 76 and fell into a tie for 29th .... Jordan Spieth, the 2017 AT&T champion, tied for 63rd after his final-round 73.