Justin Rose picked up his first win since the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion Country Club at the Quicken Loans National.
After opening the 2013-14 season with a runner-up the PGA Grand Slam of Golf and a fifth-place finish at the WGC-HSBC Champions last fall, Rose struggled with an injury early in 2014, but has been rounding into form over the past several weeks.
Although he missed the cut at the Memorial, he has posted four top-10 finishes in his last six starts. He may be peaking at just the right time as the bulk of the golf season is rapidly approaching. The Open Championship, WGC-Bridgestone, PGA Championship and the FedEx Cup Playoffs will all be decided over the next three months.
Oh yes, and there is that little event called the Ryder Cup at the end of September at Gleneagles in Scotland.
Rose is ranked No. 8 on the Official World Golf Rankings and is No. 12 in the FedEx Cup race. The win puts him over $3 million in earnings for the year and in a good position to contend in the big events for the rest of the season.
Rose had to dispose of Shawn Stefani in a playoff, however, before he could hoist the trophy at Congressional.
Stefani matched Rose’s one-under-par 70 in the final round on Sunday and forced the playoff with the major champion.
Stefani won twice on the Web.com Tour in 2012, but has yet to win on the PGA Tour. He has only played in 10 events this season, but finished fifth at the Shell Houston Open for his only other top-10 finish.
The playoff lasted just one hole as Stefani could not match Rose’s par on the first playoff hole.
The biggest story this week was the return of Tiger Woods to competitive golf after surgery to repair an ailing back on March 30.
He returned to the tour much faster than anyone expected and seemed to play pain free, although he did appear rusty.
He posted 74-75 over the first two rounds for a total of seven-over-par and missed the cut by four shots.
He will now go home to Florida and prepare for the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool in three weeks.
Charlie Hoffman and Ben Martin finished T-3 and just one shot out of the playoff at three-under-par.
Brendan Steele, Andres Romero and Brendon Todd finished at two-under-par and T-5.
Congressional played difficult all week and only three players managed to break 70 on Sunday.
Russell Knox shot 69 and moved up 38 spots on the leaderboard to finish T-24. Hoffman also carded a two-under-par 69 and Romero had the best round of the day with a three-under-par 68.
The tour will move to West Virginia for the Greenbrier Classic this week and to Illinois for the John Deere Classic the following week.