Rose stares down Stenson for his own glory moment
JUSTIN ROSE claimed gold for Great Britain yesterday, and what a gold. Not only the first one awarded to a golfer for 112 years but in a style Mo Farah would recognise as he stared down the best player on the planet right now and broke him on the 18th green.
The Englishman who first made his name as a 17-year-old at The Open with a pitch from 30 yards that finished in the hole, played another from similar distance to tap-in range to end the dogged resistance of Henrik Stenson, the man who won the Claret Jug last month.
Rose yelled his joy after holing the winning putt and clutched the Team GB symbol on his chest. Just as he did when he won the 2013 US Open, he looked to the heavens in memory of his late father Ken, who taught him the game.
‘It feels incredible right now, to call myself both a major champion and a gold medallist,’ he said. ‘I was so determined to represent Team GB as well as I could and to win gold just puts the icing on a truly magical week. I can’t tell you how proud I am and how happy.’
There were scenes of great emotion as Rose, his wife Kate and mother Annie embraced each other. ‘This really is the stuff that dreams are made of,’ said Annie, while for Kate, once a gymnast of some renown, it was considerable consolation for the regret she always felt that her discipline – acrobatics – was never included in the Olympic programme.
Rose’s brilliant caddie Mark Fulcher could barely contain his tears at the end. ‘He really came of age today, didn’t he?’ he said. ‘He wanted to out-Stenson Stenson and that’s exactly what he did.
‘I think this is as emotional as either of us have felt on the course. We’ve got this app which tells us when Team GB win a gold and Justin was so intent on contributing one of his own. It feels just amazing. I think I’m going to go back to my room, have some beer and play that Spandau Ballet song all night long.’
‘Fooch’ revealed his man drew on a now famous picture of Michael Phelps for inspiration. ‘You know the one where the swimmer [Chad le Clos] is looking at Phelps as he goes past him? Rosey said we couldn’t do that, we had to keep swimming head down and always looking forwards if we wanted to beat the hottest player in the world.’
If anyone tells you Olympic golf doesn’t matter after this, politely inform them they haven’t the faintest clue.
What scenes we witnessed yesterday as a sold-out crowd revelled in an epic between these two classy ambassadors representing Britain and Sweden. It was all played out in front of not only the IOC president, Thomas Bach, but his predecessor, Jacques Rogge. If ever you needed proof golf has been embraced as part of the Olympic family, the presence of these two powerbrokers was surely it.
Sergio Garcia, the Spaniard who finished tied for eighth with Bubba Watson, of the United States, and Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo, on seven under, summed up the mood when he tweeted: ‘Coming to Rio my best decision ever.’
At the heart of it all was the Samba shootout between Stenson and Rose.
Not much more than a month on from his epic Open duel against Phil Mickelson, Stenson found Sorry! a spectator (right) picked up a player’s ball himself embroiled in another every bit as gripping. These two good friends and ferocious competitors set the tone from the start with matching birdies at the opening hole. The one shot separating them at the start was wiped out when Stenson rolled in a 35-foot birdie putt at the second. Back came Rose with a lovely pitch to birdie the third.
By this stage it was Royal Troon revisited as the pair appeared in the mood to lap the field. Pity the third member of the group, the game underdog Marcus Fraser from Australia, who was witnessing golf on a level he can only dream about.
Elsewhere, with nothing to lose in pursuit of Fraser and a bronze medal, some of the top players of the age took dead aim and came
up with some scintillating golf. In the end it was claimed by American Matt Kuchar with a wonderful 63.
But there was never any real doubt where the top two honours were heading. It was just a case of deciding who would get the precious gold.
Stenson levelled matters at the seventh only for Rose to birdie the eighth. A rare mistake from Rose at the 13th meant the pair were level once more, before the 36-year-old holed the gutsiest of 20-foot putts at the 14th.
A birdie at the 15th put Rose back in front but still he couldn’t shake off his opponent as Stenson birdied the 16th. Still the best was to come.
With nothing to separate them at the last, it was Rose who played the pitch that led to one final, telling birdie; Rose who won the gold medal. Move over George Lyon, the man who won the last Olympic golf gold in 1904. The game has a new Olympic champion and one who couldn’t be more proud.