VIRGINIA WATER, ENGLAND | After Justin Rose had finished his fourth round in the BMW PGA championship he stood in an enclosed area near the recorder’s hut at Wentworth facing TV cameras and journalists. The Englishman wasn’t sure he had done enough to become one of Pádraig Harrington’s picks for the Europe team at the forthcoming Ryder Cup. He hoped he had and he felt as though he had but there was some doubt about it. He would know in an hour or so. Until then he could only wait.
He could scarcely have done more in his last round, a 7-under-par 65 that contained no bogeys, finishing it off with a spectacular birdie on the 17th and an eagle on the 18th. His second shot to the home hole was so close it nearly disappeared below ground for an albatross. If he had won the championship then he would have got into Harrington’s team on merit, claiming one of the qualifying places. Instead, his rousing finish got him to tied sixth.
Nearby stood Kate Rose, straw hat on her head, wondering, too, whether her husband had played well enough to get into his sixth Ryder Cup team. “He has never needed a pick,” she said with a fierce loyalty in recounting his past successes. With her fingers tightening around a can of water, she added, “He is playing so well.”
Rose’s record in the biennial event is impressive. In five appearances for Europe, only two of which were lost (2008 and 2016), he has won 13, lost eight and halved two matches. Sergio García has won more points – 25½ – but from nine matches. Ian Poulter has won 14, lost six and halved two in six appearances. The claim made for Poulter is that he is the postman, the man who always delivers a point for Europe, and at singles this is true. Rose has won two, lost two and halved one of his five singles; Poulter has won five, halved one of his six singles. To be unbeaten when playing on his own in the period from 2004 to 2018 is a powerful statistic.
Rose completed his round soon after 4 pm in England. There were more than four hours before Harrington would make his pronouncements on television. Rose, the 2013 US Open champion, had to wait.
And then the news came. He wasn’t in. Harrington had gone for García, Poulter and Shane Lowry, a Ryder Cup rookie but the 2019 Open champion, as his three selections. “JR did deliver this week,” Harrington said. “He performed. He came here under pressure but it was a step too far. I’d have loved to have had Justin Rose in the team but that’s not how it works. Ian and Sergio are the heart of the Ryder Cup team so I had to go with them, and Shane has been playing great golf all year. So Justin had to play his way in. As good as he is, there was just no place for him.”
Rose is no stranger to disappointment. He missed the cut at his first 21 professional events. But it might take him a little longer to get over this one.
John Hopkins