Justin Rose runs away with historic 7-shot win at Torrey Pines to claim Farmers Insurance Open

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The only way that Joel Dahmen knew he would even have a chance at winning on Sunday afternoon was if Justin Rose somehow just didn’t make it to Torrey Pines.

“He’s just playing too well,” Dahmen said on Saturday night. “So, maybe he will not set his alarm correctly or something might happen that way.”

Unfortunately for Dahmen, Rose was there waiting to tee off on Sunday afternoon in the final group. The Farmers Insurance Open was all but over.

Rose, who built up a massive six-shot lead over the rest of the field entering the final round, posted a 2-under 70 on Sunday to get to 23-under for the week, which gave him a seven-shot win over the rest of the field. That broke the tournament record of 22-under set by Tiger Woods back in 1999.

"The whole week has been sort of a record-setting week," Rose said on CBS. "I was just kind of aware of that, just for my own personal pride ... I was grinding on that. Obviously I was aware of the big lead, but I kind of wanted to play for [the record] for myself."

Vintage Rose showed up this week at Torrey Pines. He fired a 10-under on the North Course to kick off the week and jump into the lead immediately, and then he backed it up with a 7-under 65 on the South Course that had been giving just about everyone else issues in the second round.

Rose went 5-under on his first 10 holes on Saturday, too, and ended up building a six-shot lead by the end of his round. It would have been bigger, too, had he not slipped and made three bogeys down the stretch. Rose even admitted he thought his round “could have been lower,” something you “never want to say that after a 68 at Torrey.”

By that point, Sunday’s round was merely a formality. Rose made three birdies in a four-hole stretch to make the turn at 3-under on the day. He made a bogey early on the back side, but it didn't matter. Rose still cruised to the finish with seven straight pars to wrap up his dominant win.

Si Woo Kim and Pierceson Coody finished in second at 16-under for the week. Coody went 7-under in his final round to jump into second place. Ryo Hisatsune birdied the 18th to join that group at 16-under, too. Dahmen went 1-over in his final round to fall back to 14-under for the week at T9. 

Brooks Koepka, who made his return to the Tour this week after a run with LIV Golf, finished T56 at 4-under on the week. Koepka made the cut on the number to make the weekend.

Rose has now won 13 times in his PGA Tour career, and twice in his last five official starts after his win at the FedEx St. Jude Championship in a playoff last fall. The 45-year-old nearly won the Masters last April, too, but he fell to Rory McIlroy in a playoff at Augusta National.

Though it’s been years since he reached No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings, and well over a decade since his lone major championship win, Rose is playing some of the best golf of his career lately. He successfully dominated Torrey Pines, often regarded as one of the toughest courses on Tour, without much issue whatsoever. While that will undoubtedly be tougher to do up against stronger fields at the majors in the coming months, Rose appears more than ready to finally claim his second career major title in the near future.