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With the World No. 1 holding a six stroke lead at the start of play, the final round of the World Golf Championship-HSBC Champions in Shanghai was a formality. A damp squib, to be frank.
Brooks Koepka's opening-round 64 took him to an impressive eight-under, but Dustin Johnson stole the show with a 63 on the second day, as seven birdies on the back-nine of a bogey-free Friday put him top of the pile at -13. Koepka and the chasing pack began to slip away, failing to match DJ’s 68 on the penultimate round. That third round included a costly triple bogey for Koepka, whilst Sweden’s Henrik Stenson continued a steady march up the leaderboard; his three-under taking him to -10 for the week to occupy third spot; one stroke behind Koepka. Dustin Johnson sat six strokes clear at -17.
After the final round, Justin Rose confessed that he had been eyeing up the runner-up position, with a scorecard of 67 (-5), 68 (-4) and 72 (PAR) leaving him sharing T4 with Brain Harman at -9 for the tournament heading into the final day. He caught Stenson with birdies on the second and third, before throwing it away with bogey-birdie-bogey-bogey between the sixth and ninth.
Henrik Stenson wasn’t looking over his shoulder, though. Consecutive bogeys on the opening two holes from DJ combined with Stenson’s -2 front-nine to close the gap to three strokes, whilst Koepka was +1. Then, the damp squib came to life.
Justin Rose began totting up the birdies. One, two, three, four…Hang on, what’s Dustin doing? As Rose sinks his fourth birdie of the back-nine on the sixteenth, Dustin Johnson sinks his fifth bogey of the day and falls to -12. Rose and Stenson are now tied for the lead at -13.
Rose sinks yet another birdie on the seventeenth, whilst Stenson slumps to -12 with a bogey. Formality? I think not! The Englishman calmly finishes the job with a closing PAR to overturn an eight stroke deficit on the World No. 1 and claim his first victory of 2017.
The remarkable victory- a record-equalling comeback- puts Rose at third in the FedEx Cup rankings. But, far more importantly, it also launches Rose to third in the Race to Dubai rankings. Tommy Fleetwood and Jon Rahm’s underwhelming performances (T20 and T36 respectively), along with Sergio Garcia’s non-entry, gives Rose a real shot at the European Tour’s main prize, with just three events left to play.
Written by Joe Carabini
