Rose wins at Congressional in playoff
Golfer ‘delighted’ despite crucial error
BETHESDA, MD. — Justin Rose has won enough times on the strongest golf courses to appreciate how one mistake can make a difference.
He got away with one Sunday at Congressional to win the Quicken Loans National. Shawn Stefani did not. With the poise and the putting touch of a U.S. Open champion, Rose atoned for a 4-iron he hit into the water on the 18th hole to make a 15-foot bogey putt that got him into a playoff and gave him new life. On the 18th hole in the playoff, Stefani hit the same type of shot that rolled into the same pond left of the green.
There are no second chances in a sudden-death playoff.
Rose won with a par on the first extra hole for his first victory since the U.S. Open last summer at Merion. This one required about as much work, with Congressional far more difficult and unrelenting than when it hosted a soggy U.S. Open three years ago.
“Congressional got its reputation back after the U.S. Open,” Rose said. “I really enjoy this type of golf and this type of test. I think it tested all of us. I’m delighted.”
The Englishman was far from delighted after thinking he had thrown this one away.
Tied for the lead as he played the 18th, Rose tried to squeeze a 4-iron through a tiny gap in the trees from 209 yards away, playing toward the right side of the green for a chance at par. Instead, he turned it over and realized when he jogged toward the fairway that it was headed for the water.
His caddy, Mark Fulcher, told Rose that Stefani had just made bogey behind them on the 17th.
“Everything else was forgotten at that point,” Rose said. “I wiped the slate clean and just focused on my putt on 18. An amazing feeling in any sort of championship when you make a putt like that. That means something. That’s special.
“And then the playoff, it was just up to me to not do what I did the first time around.”
He left that to Stefani, who had drilled his tee shot in regulation and narrowly missed a 20-foot birdie putt for his first PGA Tour victory.
Both closed with a 1-under 70 and finished at 4-under 280 on a course that looked like a U.S. Open, and played like one the way so many contenders — seven players had at least a share of the lead at one point — tumbled down the leaderboard.
Only six players broke par in the final round. And it was only the second time this year that the winning score was higher than the 36-hole lead (6 under).
No one crashed harder than Patrick Reed, who had a two-shot lead to start the final round, still had a two-shot lead at the turn and didn’t even finish in the top 10. He made back-to-back double bogeys, shot 41 on the back and closed with a 77 to tie for 11th.
This was the first British Open qualifier on the PGA Tour — the leading four players not already exempt from the top 12 at Congressional get into Royal Liverpool next month.
Stefani earned one spot as the runner-up. Charley Hoffman (69) and Ben Martin (71) each birdied two of the last three holes to tie for third. Steele got the last spot with a 71 that put him in a threeway tie for third with Andres Romero and Todd, who already is exempt.