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Justin Rose posed with the trophy from the balcony high above the 18th green at Sheshan International, a moment that didn’t seem possible.
He started the final round eight shots behind Dustin Johnson, the No. 1 player in the world. “The beginning of the day, I was playing for second,” Rose said.
The HSBC Champions turned into a shocker in Shanghai when Johnson went into the PGA Tour record books for all the wrong reasons.
Instead of becoming the first player to win three World Golf Championships in one year, he tied a record for losing the largest lead in the final round. Six shots clear of the field, Johnson didn’t make a single birdie on a wild, wind-blown Sunday for a collapse that even Rose didn’t see coming.
Only when he saw a leaderboard behind the 14th green and realised he was three shots behind did Rose think he might have a chance. He got up-and-down with a tough bunker shot for birdie. He made a 10-foot par save at the 15th to stay in the game. He birdied the next two holes.
As Rose was signing for a 5-under 67, he looked up and saw Johnson’s last hope for eagle on the 18th tumble off the side of the green and into the water.
“It’s the kind of day you certainly don’t expect,” Rose said after his two-shot victory. “It’s the kind of a day you hope for, dream for, but a lot of things need to go your way in order for a day like today to happen, coming from eight shots behind, especially going against a player like DJ.”
Johnson certainly did his part. He shot 77, his highest final round with the lead since an 82 at Pebble Beach in the 2010 U.S. Open.
“I just could never get anything going and didn’t hole any putts,” Johnson said. “It was pretty simple.”
It was simply stunning.
Johnson matched the record for losing a six-shot lead, most recently by Sergio Garcia at Quail Hollow in 2005, most famously by Greg Norman in the 1996 Masters.
The one-man show turned into a four-man race in the final hour, and Rose seized on it with a 31 on the back nine. He finished at 14-under 274. Johnson tied for second with Henrik Stenson (70) and Brooks Koepka (71), who also had their chances.
Only two other players in PGA Tour history have come from more than eight shots behind on the final day to win, namely Paul Lawrie (10 shots) in the 1999 British Open and Stewart Cink (nine shots) at Hilton Head in 2004.
Hanging around to keep the sponsors happy and lift the game
Sometimes the top names have to grin and bear it when it comes to keeping a sport’s corporate sponsors happy … even if it means wearing fancy dress and pretending to fly.
Five of the world’s best golfers, for example, donned superhero personas at the launch of the WGC-HSBC Champions as one of the strongest fields ever assembled in the region gathered for what many call Asia’s Major.
The tournament featured 40 of the world’s top 50 and five fearsome fellas starred in ‘Return of the Superheroes’, an all-action animated film that ‘celebrated their individual superhero qualities’, according to the sponsor’s press release.
Taking the lead roles were Open Champion Henrik ‘The Machine’ Stenson, US Open winner Dustin ‘The Heat’ Johnson, Rickie ‘Eagle Eye’ Fowler and Bubba ‘The Magician”’ Watson, plus local hero Haotong ‘The Force’ Li.
The five so-called superheroes were pictured alongside defending champion Russell Knox who had put on his own heroic performance last year.
This year they landed with a bump … thanks to arch-villain of the piece Justin Rose who delivered a knockout blow to their chances of further glory.
