At 45, Justin Rose Is Still Winning and Still Learning

Seeing a 45-year-old star win by seven shots as Justin Rose did at Torrey Pines on Sunday at the Farmers Insurance Open certainly gets our attention.

Going wire-to-wire at any tournament is a major accomplishment and Rose said afterwards there was a lot of “self satisfaction” winning in that fashion, especially setting the 36-, 54-, and 72-hole scoring records along the way.

To win in such dominant fashion shows a lot of resilience and grit from the Englishman, and interestingly enough when he won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 2023, I spoke with him the month after in March at Bay Hill about how that felt as a dad to bring home a trophy for his kids Leo, (13 at the time), and Charlotte (11 at the time) to see.

The seven-time European Ryder Cup star understandably loved the moment with his family.

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Image: Justin Rose after winning the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am at Pebble Beach Golf Links on February 06, 2023 in Pebble Beach, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

"It was nice to share that moment with them (when he got home with the trophy),” Rose told me then. “They’re a lot more connected with my career now. I love to show them that the old man's still got it, show them what hard work looks like and that you have to persevere in life.”

Perseverance seems an apt theme throughout Rose’s professional career. That win at Pebble ended a four-year winless drought. And famously after a tie for fourth in the 1998 Open Championship as a 17-year-old amateur, Rose turned pro and missed 21 straight cuts.

“When things don't go well-those are the learning moments,” Rose says of modeling tenacity to his kids. “You only get better through mistakes. Learn from your mistakes, adjust and move on. That's where the true learning is."

As a kid growing up in northern Hampshire, England, Rose says his late father Ken would think of creative ways for him to learn golf and stay interested in it.

“The way my dad was able to do it for me was to keep things fun with games and incentives,” Rose recalled to me at Quail Hollow in 2024.

Though Rose latched on to golf in those younger years, he’s by no means pushing the sport on them, but rather stepping back and letting them drive their own interests.

“I think you need to find your own passion in life. I’m not forcing my kids to follow in anyone’s particular footsteps. I want them to follow their own passion, their own things that make them happy,” Rose said at Quail Hollow.

Image: Justin Rose of England and son Leo Rose during the Par Three Contest prior to the Masters at Augusta National Golf Club on April 06, 2022 in Augusta, Georgia. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

“They’re both very competitive. My wife’s by nature very competitive as well, so my kids do have that competitive streak, but that doesn’t make life easy actually. There’s always challenges,” Rose said.

Dad wants to see them come into their own as they process life’s adversities and setbacks.

“I like to see them suffer a little bit, I like to see them not get everything easy, because truly when I look back on my own career that’s where I learned.

"I learned from all the struggle and all the failures,” Rose said. “There’s no linear road and no linear path to the top for success at anything. It’s always a bumpy road and I think that you bounce and pivot more off of the tougher times than you do draft off the successes.”

There’s also no way of predicting how a player will feel and act when they come agonizingly close to winning the Masters, as Rose lost in a playoff to Rory McIlroy last year. Of course he had also come up short against his friend Sergio Garcia in 2017 at Augusta as well.

Last April, once McIlroy had his winning moment on the eighteenth green, Rose gave him a big embrace and McIlroy grabbed the back of Rose’s neck in their warm exchange. A moment that seemed to reflect a deep, mutual respect.

Image: (L-R) Rory McIlroy shakes hands with Justin Rose after the first playoff hole during the final round of the 2025 Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

“He was gracious in defeat at Augusta,” Rose’s longtime caddie Mark Fulcher told Skratch. “I think that empathy and character comes from his parents. They brought their boy up properly.”

Image: Justin Rose reacts with his caddie Mark Fulcher after his winning putt on the 18th green during the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open 2026 at Torrey Pines. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)

When Rose made birdie on the 72nd hole to even have any chance at a playoff in that 2025 Masters, he pointed to the heavens as he left the green. A seeming quiet nod to his late father Ken.

“Justin is a class act. He has a tremendous strength of character that he has proven in many Ryder Cups and in winning the U.S. Open,” veteran English caddie Billy Foster told Skratch. “He is unbelievably driven and works as hard as ever with his game and general fitness.”

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That strength of character also comes out in his interactions with regular people along the way.

A couple volunteers at the Arnold Palmer Invitational have been impressed with how present Rose was when he spoke with them after a round in the past. They told Skratch he never made them feel rushed in their conversation.

That’s not easy for a worldwide star with so many demands of their time. But of course, nothing on Rose’s journey has been easy.

And that’s part of who he is today.

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