Justin Rose goes on birdie binge, wins FedEx St. Jude Championship in playoff over J.J. Spaun
Adam Schupak- Justin Rose won his 12th PGA Tour title at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in a playoff.
- Rose rallied from three strokes back with birdies on his final four holes of regulation.
- Tommy Fleetwood, the 54-hole leader, finished third, tied with Scottie Scheffler.
Justin Rose believes in the Law of Large Numbers.
It is a principle of probability and statistics that as the average of the sample size grows, the average of the sample results will tend to get closer to the expected results. In Rose’s case, he couldn’t buy a putt through the first 12 holes of the final round but he trusted that if he stuck to his routine things would turn in his favor.
“I was just kind of waiting, playing a waiting game before the hole opened up and I was able to see some putts fall,” he said. “Fortunately they began to fall at the right time.”
Indeed, they did. Rose birdied four holes in a row in regulation starting at 14 to rally from three back with five holes to go and won with an 11-foot birdie putt on the third playoff hole to beat J.J. Spaun and collect his 12th PGA Tour title at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis.
"The last five holes, I played some of my best golf, and I kind of felt like I pulled it together when I really had to," he said.
On Sunday, the 45-year-old Englishman shot a final-round 3-under 67 at TPC Southwind and became the oldest Tour winner since Phil Mickelson at the 2021 PGA Championship. Rose also won for the first time on Tour since the 2023 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.
“I feel like when I play my best golf, I'm able to compete with the best players in the world, and obviously today proved that I can win against the best players in the world,” Rose said.
At the start of the week, Rose didn’t see the stars aligning on his behalf. On Monday night, he started feeling under the weather, what he dubbed “the man flu,” and skipped a practice round on Tuesday, electing to walk a handful of holes instead. “By the time I did that, I was like, just get me to the car,” he said. “I was hoping to sleep it off. Woke up Wednesday morning kind of even worse. My resting heart rate was like 80, and it's normally mid 50s.”
He withdrew from Wednesday’s pro-am but fired 64 on Thursday to join the trophy chase and a birdie at the last on Saturday moved him into the final pairing, a stroke behind Tommy Fleetwood, the 54-hole leader.
Sunday’s final round didn’t get off to a rosy start for Rose, who bogeyed the first hole and hit into the water for the second straight day at the ninth for another dropped shot. He made his third and final bogey of the day at No. 12 and stood 1-over for the day. Arriving at the tee of the par-3 14th hole, he knew his chances of winning were bleak, but he took dead aim. “I knew I had just to give it everything,” he said.
He stuck a hold 6-iron 15 feet from the back-right pin and rolled in the putt for birdie, one of only two on the hole all day. That’s when the Law of Numbers took over and he proceeded to one-putt the next three holes, including at 17 from 22 feet to tie for the lead.
Until the final hour, it looked like a different Englishman would claim the title. Fleetwood struggled just as badly early, making a shaky bogey at the first and didn’t make a birdie until the 12th hole, pouring in a 33-foot putt. But then he made it two birdies in a row, sinking a 15-footer at 13. He regained the lead at 15 under and tacked on another birdie after wedging to 6 feet at 15. But he missed the green at 17, pitched to 7 feet and knew immediately that his par putt didn’t have a chance, missing to the right. It’s more heartache for Fleetwood, who has won seven times on the DP World Tour but winning on the PGA Tour has proved elusive in 162 career starts. He has endured six runner-up finishes, most recently at the Travelers Championship in June when he squandered a two-stroke lead with four holes to go. Fleetwood also finished second in the Olympics last year to Scheffler and settled for silver.
“I’m getting close. That’s the good side of it," he said. "I’m obviously disappointed, but when you look at the positives, I was right there with a chance. It’s hard to win. I just didn’t get it done.”
He settled for third, tying with Scheffler, the world No. 1 who was playing without regular caddie Ted Scott, who left to deal with a family matter. Scheffler tied for the lead early but made a costly bogey at 15 to fall two back. He shot 67 but had one of those days where he kept hitting the lip of the cup.
“I did enough to have a really good round. Just putts weren't falling today for some reason,” he said.
Instead, it was Spaun, who played alongside Scheffler, who surged into the lead at No. 9 with his fourth birdie of the day, and poured in back-to-back birdies at Nos. 16 and 17 to tie Fleetwood at the time at 16-under. The U.S. Open winner in June shot a pair of 65s on the weekend. Rose missed a 13-foot birdie putt for the win in regulation to give Spaun new life and set up three more holes of excitement. Both players had lost to Rory McIlroy in a playoff this season: Spaun at the Players Championship and Rose at the Masters. Afterwards, Rose mused that had things gone differently, the pain of losing another playoff may have been too much to bear. “It would have doubled down on the frustration maybe of Augusta,” he said.
On the first playoff hole, both competitors burned the cup but couldn’t get putts to drop. One hole later, Spaun poured in a 30-foot birdie putt and Rose answered from 7 feet. For the third playoff hole, Tour officials cut a new hole location. Both players went flag hunting with Rose flying his approach 11 feet past the hole and Spaun sticking his to 7 feet. Rose converted his sixth birdie in his last eight holes and tournament-best 26th for the week but Spaun failed to answer and the Englishman was a winner again.
"It sucks to miss a seven-footer, but tricky read and pulled it a little bit," Spaun said. "I hung in there the best I could, and he beat me to the hole first. Just wasn't meant to be."
It meant everything to Rose, who locked up a spot on the European Ryder Cup team and secured a return to East Lake for the Tour Championship for the first time since 2019.
“That's been bugging me, and that's obviously been a huge goal,” he said.
He’s flirted with winning majors last summer at Royal Troon, eventually tying for second at the British Open, and shot a memorable final-round 66 at the Masters in April only to get pipped in a sudden-death playoff at Augusta National for a second time. His victory in Memphis proved that his hard work to stay competitive – he’ll return to the top 10 in the Official World Golf Ranking for the first time in five years – at an age when most players are trying to hang on until they are eligible for PGA Tour Champions hasn’t been in vain. Rose isn’t sure if he’ll ever get back to world No. 1 again but there’s enough gas in the tank still to do something special.
“I still feel like there is that golden summer of my career available to me,” he said. “That's what I've been pushing for.”