TOP 20 IN THEIR 20s: No. 3  Editor's Note: Our "Top 20 in Their 20s" series continues as PGATOUR.com counts down the top golfers on the PGA TOUR aged 20-29 over the next few days. The list is based on 14 statistical categories, including TOUR wins, Official World Golf Ranking, percentage of time spent in the top 10 throughout their career and 2007 FedExCup performance. Get to know No. 3: Justin Rose.
Justin Rose is often described as the best player to have never won a PGA TOUR event. Although Rose has only been a member of the TOUR since 2004, he began playing TOUR events the year before and made a name for himself on the international circuit long ago.
Rose, South African born but English bred, is a one of a handful of talented British golfers that has been dominating on both tours in recent years. "To be honest, there's a lot of talent in England right now with myself, Luke, Ian Poulter, David Howell," Rose said. "There's a whole bunch who can win these tournaments. I think the odds are beginning to stack up, not in our favor, but the more guys that can go out and do it each week or each major that comes around." Rose may not have won on TOUR yet, but his five international victories coupled with his TOUR success have created quite an impressive resume. In 2003, as a non-member, Rose earned his TOUR card by earning more than the 125th person on the TOUR money list. In his first U.S. Open that same year, he tied for fifth. As a 17-year-old amateur, he tied for fourth at the British Open Championship and the year before, Rose was the youngest member ever of a Walker Cup team. Although he has played a limited season this year due to a back injury, he has been successful in nearly every event. Rose has yet to miss a cut, and his stats are reason enough to be ranked in the top 25 in the Official World Golf Rankings. He has the fifth best actual scoring average on TOUR, and the best pre-cut scoring average; his 3.76 birdie average is sixth on TOUR, and he is 20th in putting average. In his first 10 events, Rose notched a top-10 finish in half of them. "He's a very solid player; good, young player in the game," Phil Mickelson said earlier this year of his World Golf Championships-Accenture Match Play partner. "He's been coming into his own and really developing as a player." That development was clear this year in his performance at the inaugural PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup. Rose tied for 14th in the first event, and despite missing the cut at the Deutsche Bank Championship, the young Englishman had accrued enough FedExCup points throughout the season to qualify for the third event (BMW Championship) where he tied for fifth and then went on to finish with a tie for 11th at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola. He ended his first -- and successful -- playoff run 16th in the standings with 98,434 points.
Just a couple of months later, after a fall break from golf, Rose gave his country a show of patriotism in China at the OMEGA Mission Hills World Cup. Determined to cheer up a country that had just missed qualifying for the European Cup soccer tournament for the first time in decades, he and his teammate, Ian Poulter, not only donned their nation's colors, they also put on quite a show in China, flirting with the lead and eventually earning a tie for fourth. Rose admits he has greatly improved since his rookie year on TOUR, but not all of it has to do with hard work. Several life changes have also shaped his game. "Some of the changes I've made I've made deliberately for situations, in terms of the coach and in terms of the caddie," Rose said. "Other things are out of your control. The passing of my dad, that helps you put things in perspective and helps you realize golf is what you should be enjoying doing." His father Ken passed in September 2002. It was his father who got him into the game when he gave Justin a plastic club when he was only 11 months old, in the backyard of the family's Hampshire, England home. To remember his father, Justin created the Ken Rose Foundation. Who will be No. 2? Hint: This Australian golfer has five TOUR wins and shares something in common with Phil Mickelson: His coach. |
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