– Justin Rose (-16) has won the FedEx St. Jude Championship, the first playoff of the FedEx Cup, after carding a 67 in the final round and then defeating J. J. Spaun on the third hole of a high-flying playoff (Rose needed to make birdie on the second and third holes to win it). The Englishman thus claims his twelfth victory on the PGA Tour and his second in a playoff, fourteen years after achieving the first. Furthermore, in case there was any doubt (there wasn’t, really), he also confirms his presence in the European Ryder Cup team, whether mathematically or not, a competition he will play for the seventh time 17 years after his debut (2008). That’s what comes with keeping your game sharp for so long, a truly rare ability among a very select group of extraordinary players in the history of this sport.
– Rose has won after finishing the round with four consecutive birdies between holes 14 and 17, which weren’t five by sheer luck, as he almost did it on the 18th as well. Then, as mentioned: in the three-hole playoff, he narrowly missed a birdie on the first and made it on the second and third, closing a series of six birdies in the last eight holes played. Relentless. We now recall the nickname Rory McIlroy gave to Scottie Scheffler (-15) earlier this year, precisely The Relentless, and it turns out this week the relentless one was the veteran Englishman. The World Number One will have time to set things right again, but this week there was someone more aggressive and accurate in the decisive stretch.
– Scottie was in the fight almost until the end, but this time he couldn’t turn the nuances, the details, in his favour. In fact, in hindsight, one could almost say he lost the tournament with a very poor drive on the 14th hole, as his ball hit a relatively close tree from the tee and ended up making a bogey that took the reins of the tournament, the control of the situation, out of his hands. Despite everything, his numbers are there again: he didn’t have the best round of the day, he was a bit more forgiving on the greens than usual, especially compared to Saturday, when his putter was on fire, but he was fighting for the win until the end and finished third.
– It was worse for Tommy Fleetwood (-15), as it is. The Englishman, after starting with a bogey on the 1st hole and stringing together ten pars on a course, the TPC Southwind, that offered no leniency, seemed to finally decisively find his way to his first PGA Tour victory, with birdies on holes 12, 13, and 15… However, just from that moment and after an excellent drive on the 16th, the last par 5, his level of play was going to drop noticeably and alarmingly. Too many mistakes. Too many concessions. He missed the second shot on that 16th hole, the drive on the 17th, a short putt to save par on that same hole, the drive on the 18th… It was impossible like that, especially against rivals of the calibre of Rose, Spaun, or Scheffler himself. As he says, he has no choice but to keep pushing and learning.
– As for Spaun… After playing and losing that playoff at THE PLAYERS against McIlroy, we wondered if that success, despite the defeat, would truly elevate him to a higher level. And he answered the question himself weeks later with an epic victory at the US Open. But even after winning at Oakmont and breaking into the world top ten, one could still wonder if he would truly be able to stay alert and on guard at the top, and perhaps not even this great performance in Memphis will fully confirm anything one hundred percent… Such is the life of mega stars, who are always expected to do more and more, what can we do J. J. Be that as it may, he continues to respond. And everyone is happy, as Scheffler explained, because no one minds seeing a guy succeed who works as hard as anyone and is truly a model of good character.
