Justin Rose arrested a four-year winless streak after years of hard work came to fruition with a comfortable three-shot victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
The 42-year old has had his fair share of setbacks in recent times, with niggling injuries and luckless equipment changes contributing to a difficult spell for the former world number one.
A final round 66 for an 18-under winning tally was enough to get the job done on Monday for Rose who now earns his ticket to the Masters Tournament in April while no doubt catching the eye of European Ryder Cup Captain Luke Donald in the process.
“Augusta’s definitely been a big part of being on my mind,” said Rose, the first European winner of the event.
“I thought the simple way to approach it was try to play my way into the top 50 in the world by whenever the date is. Some time in March.
“My intention was to come out and play solid and earn some points and claw my way up the World Rankings and make it that way. Obviously this is a better way to make it by winning a tournament. It’s funny how you, by winning, you earn the points and everything takes care of itself.
“So, yeah, big relief from that point of view to be able to plan a little bit more of the run into Augusta now. Because I was playing a little bit more than maybe I would have wanted to because of that fact. But to have the luxury now is unbelievable.”
Given Rose’s struggle for form in recent years and having tipped the other side of forty, it’s no wonder his name has often been linked with LIV Golf.
It’s no secret that Rose’s high-profile fit the LIV mould and while talks were had with the Saudi-backed outfit, with rumours of $60-80 million up front, Rose resisted the offer, unwilling to watch his ranking plummet and risk Major exclusion and instead back himself to once again compete.
“It’s not as important as winning a major or two, for sure,” Rose said of the money. “But you got to be in it to win it. I think that’s it. Just sort of giving up on that opportunity is what you got to look yourself in the mirror and just say, you know, is that something that’s worth it for me?
“I’ve been one of the players that’s very fortunate to have done very well at the game of golf. So moments like I’ve just had — and it’s nice to speak about it from — I made the decision based upon blind faith. Hope to win. Hope to put myself in the situation. My game hasn’t produced many, many of those opportunities of late. But still have had that belief that it’s possible.”
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