Rose authors third-largest comeback in Tour history
By
Nick Menta
October 29, 2017, 8:35 am

With his victory Sunday at the WGC-HSBC Champions, Justin Rose authored the third-largest comeback PGA Tour history.

Eight shots behind 54-hole leader Dustin Johnson to start the final round, Rose battled trying conditions to shoot 5-under 67 and win by two over Johnson, Brooks Koepka and Henrik Stenson.

Only two men, Paul Lawrie and Stewart Cink, have erased larger decifits to go onto to win on Tour. Lawrie was 10 behind Jean van de Velde in 1999 at the Open Championship, while Stewart trailed Ted Purdy by nine in 2004 at Harbour Town.

DJ's lead was large enough, in fact, that Rose before the final round was willing to settle for less than victory.

"Yeah, I would say that. Yeah, second place was probably -- I think whenever you're playing behind someone with a lead, [you] try and win the other golf tournament," Rose said. "That's always my mentality. And then just see what happens. The leader, you never expect him to have a bad day, but just in case, play for second.

"Fortunately I got a little bit of help from DJ but then it sort of almost began to change for me on I would say 13. I rolled in a putt at 13 to get to [11 under]. I felt like I had some momentum going there, and I knew DJ was maybe at 15, 14. That's when it was at least on, right."