2015 Zurich Classic results: Justin Rose rolls to victory in New Orleans

Up until the Masters, Justin Rose’s PGA Tour season had been mostly trash. But then the Englishman started rolling them in at Augusta and played his way into the Sunday final pairing. It was a major move for one of the game’s premier talents who’d done nothing of note in 2015. Well, that form from the Masters held this week in New Orleans, where Rose fired 65-66 on the weekend to shoot up the leaderboard and win the Zurich Classic.

This Zurich Classic title is Rose’s seventh PGA Tour win and 18th career victory. Few have been better on the stateside Tour over the past five years. While he first made a name for himself at that infamous 1998 Open Championship as an 18-year-old amateur, Rose has done most of his damage on the PGA Tour since 2010. All seven wins have come since then and they have been on some of the toughest courses and at the most competitive events. The Zurich Classic is not that, but this win and that weekend performance at Augusta alongside Jordan Spieth will have Rose as a trendy pick to win another U.S. Open in a couple months.

After a six-hour rain delay on Saturday, the Tour squeezed out a majority of the third round and the final round during a lengthy Sunday march at TPC Louisiana. Rose spent much of the day near the top of the leaderboard, but others like Jason Day, Cameron Tringale, Daniel Berger, and Boo Weekley all exchanged blows on a course that can yield plenty of birdies and movement. But it was Rose who turned it on late, posting back-to-back red numbers to close it out at 22-under. His putt at the 18th was crushed but it went right in the center to get him into the house with a multi-shot cushion.

Because of the lengthy delay, the Tour did not repair groups for the third round so Rose had to wait it out a bit in the clubhouse to see if any of the players in the final few groups could match his finish. Day was the most talented of the remaining chasers, but he needed to hole out an albatross from the fairway just to force a playoff.

Rose will now move back into the top five in the world. I sat and listened to him last year at Congressional after his last win, and in a spot where most players drone on with mind-numbing cliches, he gave real answers to questions. He’s engaging, thoughtful, and articulate in a way that actually makes describing a golf round fairly interesting. Almost no one was rooting for him two weeks ago when he was pushing Spieth, but having Rose as one of world class players in golf and regularly winning is definitely good for the game. Now, everybody dance.

The Tour jumps back out to the west coast for the re-formatted WGC Match Play event at TPC Harding Park. Here are your final results from New Orleans: