Late-bloomer Rose too hot for fading Dustin
A BANNEr day for British golf saw Justin rose overhaul world No 1 dustin Johnson in extraordinary circumstances to win the wGC-HSBC Champions event in China, while Paul Casey announced he is rejoining the European Tour with the aim of playing in the ryder Cup next year.
rose’s victory in Shanghai might well have been the most astonishing all season, given he trailed the American by six shots with just nine holes to play. But a remarkable back nine completed in 31 strokes in tough, windy conditions piled the pressure on Johnson, who collapsed over the closing stretch. rose finished on 14 under par.
It was rose’s first title since his olympic gold medal in rio 14 months ago and preserves a streak of at least one victory each year that began in 2010.
After the four majors, winning one of the four wGC events might be the next best thing. rose, 37, picked up a first prize of £1.2million to move up to third place behind Tommy Fleetwood and Sergio Garcia in the race to dubai and back into the top six in the world rankings.
He’s also got his ryder Cup qualifying campaign off to the perfect start.
‘This is really satisfying,’ rose said. ‘All players pride themselves on winning and I was very aware that my record of a victory every year since 2010 was slipping away. To win a wGC is just amazing, because they count for so much on both the PGA and the European Tours.’
No one could have seen this one coming. Johnson was back to his imperious best and had established a six-stroke cushion over US open champion Brooks Koepka with a round to play. rose was eight strokes adrift. Furthermore, bogeys at the eighth and ninth left the Englishman thinking he’d need a very good inward half simply to finish second. ‘That all started to change when I birdied the 13th and 14th, and holed a massive putt from 10 feet for a par at the 15th.’
Johnson also gave him every encouragement. The 33-year-old began bogey, bogey. He never had a birdie all day and dropped shots at the 15th and 16th to leave the door wide open. rose barged through to wrap up the victory with a stunning long-iron shot to tap-in range at the par-three 17th.
In the end, it was Henrik Stenson who was the last to fall. He bogeyed the difficult 17th to finish in a three-way tie for second with Johnson and Koepka.
Casey, who finished tied 11th, has now made it official that he is to rejoin the European Tour after a three-year absence.
‘I can’t tell you how thrilled I am at the possibility of playing in the ryder Cup again,’ said the 40-year-old, who is based in Arizona these days with his television presenter wife Pollyanna woodward and their two young children.
Casey, ranked 15th in the world, left Europe because he didn’t think he could juggle both tours as well as spend quality time with his family. But a silver-tongued campaign conducted by ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn has proved persuasive.
‘The thing that excites me the most is the role I feel I can play in supporting young guys like Tommy Fleetwood, Tyrrell Hatton and Matt Fitzpatrick,’ Casey said.