No longer No 1, but Rose blooms
FOURTH: HOWEVER, ENGLISHMAN SCOOPS $10M JACKPOT
Superstar Woods is back on familiar territory.
Atlanta
Justin Rose may have scooped the FedEx Cup trophy with a fourthplace finish at the Tour Championship on Sunday but it was not enough to prevent him from surrendering the coveted top spot in the world rankings.
The 2016 Olympic champion was replaced as world No 1 by Dustin Johnson when the new rankings were released yesterday.
Johnson regained the ranking after finishing third, one shot ahead of Rose, at Atlanta’s East Lake Golf Course.
Rose however was more than satisfied with his week’s work, which earned him a $10 million FedEx Cup winner’s cheque.
“There were a lot of scenarios at play this week and that’s what the beauty of this format is,” Rose said. “I think obviously for me this year it has rewarded consistent golf.
“For me, I was trying to do my best to win this golf tournament and scoop the double jackpot.
“But far and away, being next to this trophy is something I’m very, very proud of, and it was – definitely with five, six holes to play – it was pretty precarious.
“I was in a great position around the turn, and then things just got tricky out there.”
Johnson had first moved to world No 1 in February 2017 and remained atop of the rankings for 64 weeks until the second week in May this year.
The Florida golfer then returned to top spot four weeks after Justin Thomas had seized the title and with Johnson staying atop of the rankings for a further 13 weeks until Rose finished runner-up in the BMW Championship in Philadelphia.
“No, it doesn’t really matter and while I wanted to make it back to the top, I would have hit it the same way,” said Johnson.
A resurgent Tiger Woods, who ended his five-year winless drought to capture an 80th PGA Tour title after corrective back surgery that laid him low for a lengthy period, has moved up a further eight places to be the new world No 13. –