Justin Rose delighted to birdie four of the last five holes at TPC Sawgrass
Sunday 15 May 2016 22:41, UK
Justin Rose produced arguably the celebration of the week as he rounded off an up-and-down week at The Players Championship with a six-under 66 at Sawgrass.
Rose was just two off the lead after an opening 65 in which he hit all 18 greens in regulation, but he followed with rounds of 74 and 78 which left him playing for pride on Sunday.
And his spirits were certainly restored in the final round as four birdies took him to the turn in 33 and, after his second bogey of the day at 13, he reeled off four consecutive birdies to get back to five under par for the tournament.
Rose saved his best for the huge galleries surrounding the 17th, where his 15-foot putt wriggled into the hole for a two and prompted a celebratory dance from the Englishman that would have impressed golf fanatic Niall Horan, who will be teeing up with the former US Open champion at next week's BMW PGA Championship pro-am.
The world No 10 enjoyed the friendlier conditions at the Stadium Course after the well-documented difficulties of Saturday, and he said: "They definitely backed up the greens today. I think there was only one cut and one roll, I don't know what the heck they did yesterday.
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"It was fun. We knew were going to get some decent scoring conditions playing early this morning so it was nice to finish strong with a 66. I struggled with my back for some reason this weekend so my warm-up on Saturday was incredibly short, it was literally hit 20 shots, five putts and tee off.
"I did well just to make the tee so I was totally caught off guard, but once I got my head around it I quite enjoyed the challenge and relished it because Oakmont is going to be somewhat similar. Once my score started going sideways I started to use it as practice to get my eye in."
