By Rahul Banerji
The weekend provided for an interesting twist, with an Englishman, Justin Rose winning on the US PGA Tour, and an American, Bryson DeChambeau, winning a European title.
At the Torrey Pines course in San Deigo – Tiger territory to golfing familiars – Rose carved out a record score at the Farmer’s Insurance Open while DeChambeau, aka The Professor, busted the course record on his way to victory at the Omega Dubai Desert Classic.
Finishing well behind DeChambeau were Shubhankar Sharma who rounded off with a fourth straight birdie for a 68 and a tied-29th placing while Gaganjeet Bhullar shot a 69 for shared 38th place.
The two Indians now tee off at the new European Tour event, the $3.5 million Saudi International in Jeddah next week.
Changing gears
At Torrey Pines, Rose missed four short putts in his first six holes and saw his three-shot lead shrink to just one before he rewound his approach to birdie three of the next four holes and then play steady golf the rest of the way.
Rose’s 21-under 267 (63-66-69-69) was two shots better than the Tiger Woods’ winning total in 2008, and it was his 10th PGA Tour win, three of which have come since the start of last season.
The Englishman has now finished in the top 10 in 13 of his last 21 Tour starts, including eight top-3s and one missed cut and said afterwards, “I always pride myself on the golf courses I’ve been able to win on and this one is another very great golf course with a lot of history.
“I love winning on great tests of golf and this one will give some special feelings because of that.”
Rose also joined Woods as the only player to convert a Saturday lead at this event over the last decade.
‘Stayed calm’
Rose started Sunday’s round badly, allowing Jon Rahm to pull within a stroke behind him.
“I never lost the lead so I had to stay patient. Definitely there were times in my career where I’ve had decent sized leads and you start to throw it away a little bit and you panic. I just knew I couldn’t do that today. I stayed calm, I stayed with it.
“I just said, “You’re no. 1 in the world for a reason, just start playing like it, please.
“Everything has worked out better than I would have hoped,” he said.
The Professor sets the mark
In Dubai meanwhile, the day belonged to DeChambeau (64), who not only won his first title outside of the United States, but also set a new tournament record of 24-under par ahead of England’s Matt Wallace.
It improved by one the mark set by China’s Li Haotong last year, beating Wallace (68 and 17-under) by seven shots, also a tournament record for the highest winning margin. I bettered Ernie Els’ mark of six shots while winning in 1994.
On his fourth win in the last nine starts, he later said, “It’s a lot of hard work with my caddie and just really grinding and trying to figure out how to take account of all the variables out there, whether it’s air pressure, firmness values, mile-per- hour on the speed, putts, and ball speed, spin rates.
“We’re trying to figure out as much as possible so I can be as successful as possible and obviously it’s shown. (I was) trying to shoot 25-under today and missed it by one, but I’m happy with the results for sure. I was trying to go as deep as possible today.
“Today I was happy with my game. I executed a lot of great shots.”
Sharma hopes for better
Despite a creditable finish on Sunday, Sharma, 22, and only in his second season on the European Tour, where he won twice last year, couldn’t help feeling that it could have been a better outing.
“I would say my game was not all that great this week. I did some work on driving, but putts did not fall on some of the days, so all parts did not work at the same time. Hopefully it is coming together soon.”
For his part, Bhullar could not get his putter going but he ensured he did not drop more than one shot against four birdies. “I wouldn’t say I am happy, but I not very worried either because the game is fine. The putts didn’t drop this week.
“Still mid-20s last week and in 30s this week means something should happen soon and it was not a write-off,” he said. “I am looking forward to the new event next week in Saudi.”
Paul Waring (64), Ian Poulter (64), Sergio Garcia (66) and Alvaro Quiros (68) were tied third at 16-under, while another five – Justin Harding (63), Lee Westwood (67), Jason Scrivener (68), Lucas Herbert (69) and Thorbjorn Olesen (69) were tied seventh at 15-under.
Defending champion Li Haotong, the only one in the top 28 to have an over-par round was tied-13th.
Also read:Tour rookie Long pips Mickelson, Hadwin to Desert Classic title
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