The PGA player of the week is a new column by Jack Gaydos for TWN.  In this weekly piece, Gayods will be featuring one player each week who’s performance on the course stood out. This week that player is Justin Rose of England.
Going into last week’s tournament at the Farmers Insurance Open, I placed Justin Rose as my favorite to win, which he did, in part because of the balance his driving distance and driving accuracy, which is essential at the south course of Torrey Pines. Rose not only lived up to his stats, but he also surpassed them.
Rose kicked off the Farmers Insurance Open shooting nine under on Thursday thanks to seven birdies and an eagle on the par five tenth hole. He backed up his play on Thursday by shooting a solid six under on Friday highlighted by his three-hole birdie run on holes four, five, and six. He slowed down on Saturday only shooting three under but due to his weekday push he was right in the mix on top of the leaderboards. He finished the rest of the field off on Sunday and pushed passed runner up Adam Scott thanks to two late birdies on the sixteenth and eighteenth holes.
Rose can contribute his victory to his driving accuracy of 62.5%, which was better than the rest of the finishers in the leaderboard. Also, another big stat to look at for Rose his GIR (Greens In Regulation) which was 77.8%, this allowed Rose to rely on his putting rather than his short wedge play around or near the green. Rose finished off the rest of the field with his putting; he averaged 1.589 putts for every green he hit in regulation which is remarkable. These three critical components of Rose’s week are the reason he finished twenty-one under and with the win.
Looking ahead to the rest of Rose’s year, you can expect more of the same. I project him to win at least one major in 2019, and if I had to pick just one of them, I would say he gets it done at the Masters. Rose was a runner up at the Masters a few years ago to Sergio Garcia, and he is also the current FedEx Cup champion, disappointing golf fans everywhere due to him beating out Tiger Woods in the final moments for the crown at the Tour Championship. Rose will not be playing in this week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open, but expect to see him again soon. He is a player who has always been around in the leaderboards. He is a little underrated, so he has stayed out of most peoples radars, but don’t be surprised if 2019 is the year of Justin Rose.