2014 Quicken Loans National results: Justin Rose wins playoff at Congressional

Justin Rose won the 2014 Quicken Loans National on Sunday evening, but again, the course, Congressional, may have been the biggest victor. The four leaders on Friday night at the 36-mole mark stood at 6-under, and by Sunday night, 4-under was good enough to get into a playoff with Shawn Stefani and Rose going to extra holes.

I wrote on Saturday night that Patrick Reed was on top of the leaderboard just by “holding on” at a Congressional layout that was playing tougher than the USGA setup for the 2011 U.S. Open. Reed’s chances at a fourth win in less than 12 months were toast early on Sunday, and he was done for good when he put one in the water at the 10th for his first of back-to-back double bogeys after making the turn. With Reed scuffling and no one in the final pairings able to post red numbers and make a move, Justin Rose jumped up to the top of a leaderboard, finishing about an hour before the final group came into the house.

Rose shot a 1-under 70 to get to 4-under, but he needed a clutch bogey putt on the 18th hole just to have a chance. For much of the back nine, he held sole possession of the lead at 5-under, but the 18th was a mess until he poured in that last putt. It started with an ugly hooked drive that rattled around in the left trees. From that position, he tried to pull off a miraculous punch out and run it up onto the peninsula green. But the punch-approach was short and went rolling into the water on the front-left side of the putting surface. Rose would make his drop, although not without difficulty, and then blast his pitch well past the hole. Rose, however, would knuckle down and drain the 15-foot comebacker for the “bogey” save. It was an adventure, but he did enough to get to the playoff.

With that bogey, Rose dropped out of sole possession of the lead to share the top spot with Stefani, who had just bogeyed the 17th to fall back to 4-under. Stefani would have chance to end it himself on the 18th green with a birdie, but his putt just burned to edge.

While Reed and Seung-Yol Noh played out formalities in the final pairing, the Rose-Stefani duo went back to the 18th tee for the first playoff hole. Stefani made a mess in much the same way Rose did in regulation, except he couldn’t pull off a save to keep the tournament going. He rocketed his drive way left, just like Rose about an hour earlier. But with his ball in the trees and behind a grandstand, he’d get relief from the “immovable obstruction.” Stefani still had to run a punch shot out of the trees just to get up on the green, and he made the exact same mistake as Rose in regulation, running it short and left into the water surrounding the peninsula.

On his second tour through the 18th, Rose steadily bombed his drive in the middle of the fairway and then put his approach shot safely on the back of the green after watching Stefani run his into the water. He’d two putt out for par and his sixth PGA Tour win, including his second at this event. When Rose won it the first time, it was the AT&T National and was played up in Philadelphia at Aronimink. His PGA Tour resume is pretty loaded, with wins at Memorial, the U.S. Open at Merion, Cog Hill, Doral, Aronimink, and now Congressional.

Rose has long been one of the top players in the world, and earned that career-defining U.S. Open win just a year ago at Merion. The conditions were U.S. Open-like this week at Congressional, and he repeatedly said he preferred the firm, fast, and tough setup that made double-digit under-par impossible to reach (McIlroy won the 2011 U.S. Open here at 16-under). He was certainly the biggest name on the first page of the leaderboard at the start of Sunday. That’s not been a great position for some of the bigger names in an underwhelming season where those top stars have faltered on the weekend. But after a bit of a slow start to the 2014 season due to a shoulder injury from throwing a golf ball, Rose might be back on track with his national Open at Royal Liverpool just two weeks away.

Tiger Woods, whose comeback from injury at his own event was the biggest story of the week/month/season, did not stick around to hand out the trophy to Rose on Sunday night.

Woods missed the cut by a good four shots on Friday, struggling in several areas as he tries to get into competitive shape for the Open Championship. Woods’ foundation organizes and benefits from this tournament, and he had presented the trophy last year to Bill Haas even when he wasn’t around playing still (that was due to an elbow injury). But he had jetted out of town well before Rose locked things up in the playoff Sunday night.

Here are the final results from this year’s Quicken Loans National: