Justin Rose was clearly disappointed after losing the BMW Championship in a playoff to Keegan Bradley, which would have been the 10th career victory for the 38-year-old from England. But he didn’t leave Philadelphia totally unhappy, as his second-straight solo runner-up finish moved him to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings.
“Amazing achievement. I’d love to go there by winning because obviously I want to get to No. 1 by winning golf tournaments, but today was fun,” said Rose.
“I birdied 16, 17. I knew Keegan was ahead of me doing the same thing, so I kind of was responding to that. Hit a great putt in regulation to win it, but then obviously it was a poor playoff, just — kind of glued coming out of that fringe there and then I under-read the putt.
“Yeah, delighted to be world No. 1. Yeah, it’s boyhood dreams; know what I mean?”
Rose has had an incredible run, worldwide, over the past 10 months, notching four wins and seven additional top-5s.
The 2013 U.S. Open Champion also finished runner-up at the recent Open Championship, one of three in his last five starts. He has just one missed cut on the season, which occurred at the playoff-opening Northern Trust. He bounced back from that unlikely failure with a solo-second at last week’s Dell Technologies Championship.
The runner-up finish came with a second-consecutive check for $972,000, along with another 1,200 points, which moves him to No. 2 in the standings behind only Bryson DeChambeau in the playoff points standings.
