Justin Rose has had a career year on the PGA Tour in 2012 and won nearly $4.3 million. He had a win at Doral, a runner-up to Brandt Snedeker at the Tour Championship in the FedEx Cup Playoffs and a third place finish in the PGA Championship.
That was all before his out of body putting exhibition at the Ryder Cup and his $1.5 million win at the Turkish Airlines World Golf Final.
Heading into the WGC-Cadillac at Doral Rose had lost in the first round of the WGC-Accenture to Paul Lawrie but came back with a T-5 at the Honda. He shot 69-64-69-70 on the “Blue Monster” one shot clear of Bubba Watson and two shots ahead of Rory McIlroy for the win.
While everyone was busy watching Rory McIlroy cruising around the Ocean Course at Kiawah in the PGA Championship, Rose crafted a six-under par 66 on Sunday that moved him into a T-3 finish.
He was in contention heading into the final round in the Tour Championship with opening rounds of 66-68-68, but struggled just slightly on Sunday posting a one-over par 71 that left him three shots behind the eventual winner, Brandt Snedeker.
With a T-5 at the WGC-Bridgestone Rose posted eight top-10 finishes this year on the PGA Tour. He finished No. 12 in the FedEx Cup and moved into No. 5 on the Official World Golf Rankings.
Oh yeah, he is also having a pretty fair year on the European Tour. He was T-2 at the European Tour’s flagship event the BMW PGA Championship in May.
With his strong performances in the European Tour’s co-sanctioned WGC tournaments plus his third place finish in the PGA Championship, he is only a little under €500,000 behind Rory McIlroy in the European Tour’s Race to Dubai.
Rose intends to play several European Tour events through the remainder of the year to overtake Rory and win the Race to Dubai.
Let us not forget his unbelievable performance at Medinah in the Ryder Cup.
Rose was 3-2 overall at Medinah. Getting a full point win in his singles match on Sunday versus Phil Mickelson drew the European Team even with the USA.
Rose was one down to Mickelson through 14 holes on Sunday. Then he began to make putts from everywhere, he birdied No. 17 to draw even and birdied No. 18 to win the match. It was one of the most amazing performances in Ryder Cup history.
Earlier this month he was invited to play in the inaugural Turkish Airlines World Golf Final, an exhibition with seven other top players for a $5.2 million purse. He proceeded to dust the field in Turkey and pocketed the first place check of $1.5 million.
Rose has had top-10 finishes in all of the majors including T-8 in the 2012 Masters and T-3 in this year’s PGA Championship.
If you want to look for the top contenders to win a major in 2013, Justin Rose has to be at the top of the list.