Why Can't Justin Rose Win the Big One?
Travis Mewhirter March 26, 2013 12:00 PM
COMMENTARY | Unless you currently reside under a sporting rock, you are well aware that the greatest holiday of the year, March Madness, is in full swing.
And as paper shredders feast on broken bracket upon broken bracket -- thank you, Florida Gulf Coast, Harvard, and Wichita State -- there was still golf being played, while the second greatest holiday of the year, the Masters, looms just around the corner.
Tiger Woods gobbled up all the scraps of attention left over from the NCAA tournament with his 77th PGA Tour victory at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, his second in a row and third this year, and resumed his all too comfortable position as the No. 1 player in the world and in the FedEx Cup standings.
So, naturally, everybody is talking Tiger. But another name should have turned a few heads this weekend:
Justin Rose.
Rose finished in second -- his third top 10 finish this season -- alone behind Woods to ascend to No. 3 in the world, the best ranking of his career. And with this success comes the nagging question: Why can't Rose win the big one?
Ardent golf supporters may remember Rose when he was 17 and made history as the youngest player to ever compete in a Walker Cup. Others might remember him from his first major start in the Open Championship in 1998 where he finished tied for fourth.
Now, however, Rose may be known as the newest president of the club that Phil Mickelson served several terms for: Greatest Player Never to Have Won a Major.
It's baffling to think that Rose, now 32 and in his ninth year on tour, hasn't won a major yet. He was still a teenager when he stormed Royal Birkdale back in 1998 to finish in the top five. He was barely allowed to legally drink for his next top five in the 2003 U.S. Open at Olympia Fields. And, in 2007, his worst finish in a major -- his first year making the cut in all four of them -- was 12th.
It seemed only a matter of time before the gates were opened and major championships came by the pair.
But they haven't.
All in all, Rose has 35 career major starts dating back to 1998, making the cut in 22 of them. In that 22, he has posted 16 top 25 finishes, seven top 10s and four top fives.
But, again, he hasn't won.
Whether it's fair or not, winning the big ones is the barometer used in judging a golfer's career success. If that wasn't the case, and we used regular-season tournaments as our measuring stick, Sam Snead, who won seven majors, would be the only possible candidate for the best golfer in history.
But that's not the case. So we look to Palmer, to Woods, to Jack Nicklaus, and to Gary Player as golf's Mount Rushmore.
Many might say that Bubba Watson has had a better career than Rose because of his awe-inspiring win at Augusta National last year, when he bent a pitching wedge so sharply out of the woods that it's a wonder how his grooves weren't inspected for spin-inducing technology. But this is flawed logic.
Watson, as genial and affable a character as there is on tour, has had a career that can't even hold a candle to Rose's. Same goes for other major one-timers such as Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel, Graeme McDowell, even tour brawler Jim Furyk -- all great players, but all slightly overrated because of their one shining moment.
The good news for Rose: He is absolutely dynamite at Augusta. In seven starts, his worst finish is T39 (2003), and he has graced the top 20 in four of the last five, although he didn't play in 2010.
The better news for Rose: The Masters is just three weeks away, and the timing ostensibly couldn't be better as he is rapidly approaching the zenith of his career. With his second-place finish at Bay Hill this weekend, he moved up to the No. 3 ranking in the world, his highest ever, sitting behind just Nike posterboys Woods and Rory McIlroy. Not bad company to be in.
But, for now, without a major win under his belt, he resides with different company: his Greatest Player Never to Have Won a Major club.
And lord knows he wants to get kicked out.
Travis Mewhirter has been working in the golf industry since 2007, when he was a bag room manager at Piney Branch Golf Club in Carroll County, Maryland, and has been involved, as a player, since 2004. Since then, he has worked at Hayfields Country Club, where the Constellation Energy Classic was formerly held, and has covered golf at the high school, college, and professional levels.
