Justin Rose has clinched the 2025 FedEx St Jude title, overcoming J.J. Spaun in a playoff and later sharing a few thoughts on his opponent.
Both players had previously fallen short to Rory McIlroy in playoffs earlier this season, but this time it was Rose who managed to come out on top.
Rose closed with six birdies over his final eight holes to catch up with Tommy Fleetwood and Scottie Scheffler, finishing at -16 alongside Spaun before heading into extra holes.
The playoff stretched across three holes before Rose drained a 12-footer that Spaun could not match, securing the win for the Englishman.
Rose secured a well-deserved victory, capping off a strong PGA Tour season. Despite the tense conclusion, he praised Spaun following the match.
Justin Rose labels J.J. Spaun as a ‘great player’
After edging Spaun in a tight playoff, Rose assessed his display and praised his rival’s strong finish at TPC Southwind.
“Yeah, so I’ve never really played that hole the way I played it today. Never hit driver off that hole. I’ve never been able to cover the left side. For some reason I’ve been hitting it quite far this week and the wind was just perfect.
“It was down from the right-hand side, and it meant I could just cover the left-hand side. I felt like it was playing perfect for me today with the driver. If I held the driver up a little bit, I probably wasn’t going to run out, and if I turned the driver over, I was going to make the carry, which obviously that angle that I was able to create to the back left pin was very advantageous,” Rose said.
“Then obviously they changed the pin to the back right. That sort of advantage was negated a little bit. But funny enough when they changed the pin was when I won the first time around on that pin placement.
“But the pin placement for the third time around in the playoff was sort of similar to day one or day two, I can’t quite remember, but I had a putt in that back section of green that I had underread, and I actually walked over to exactly where, you could see the old cup mark, so I tried to get a feel for that part of the green and then the part of the green that I was actually putting on in the playoff, and that was definitely helpful, and holed a really good slippery left-to-right putt there.”
“I was able to sort of, I guess, changing it played into my hands eventually. But J.J. is obviously such a great player. You’re never waiting for him to make a mistake. He’s so solid off the tee. But he obviously had to fit a 3-wood into probably the tighter bit of fairway, so probably a harder tee shot for J.J., especially being a left-to-right player. But I’m glad it worked out in the end.”
Justin Rose makes strong case for Team Europe
Earlier in the year, there were questions about whether Justin Rose should still be part of the Ryder Cup squad.
But after a strong 2025 season and a near-miss at The Masters, Rose has answered those doubts. He has clearly earned his spot on the team.
His experience will be invaluable to Luke Donald, but even more important is the form he is showing right now.
Few in Team Europe are playing better than Rose at the moment, and with Bethpage Black set to be an intense environment, he could end up being one of their most important players.
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