Justin Rose reveals equipment woes after ending 1,471-day wait for PGA Tour win

England's Justin Rose clinched a three-stroke victory at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am to end his four-year winless drought on the PGA Tour.

Ben Smith

06 Feb 2023

Justin Rose reveals equipment woes after ending 1,471-day wait for PGA Tour win — Justin Rose reveals equipment woes after ending 1,471-day wait for PGA…

Justin Rose says a whole bunch of factors contributed to finally ending his four-year winless drought on the PGA Tour.

One of which included putting new Cobra KING Tour irons in his bag for the first time.

Rose, 42, cruised to a three-shot victory in California on Monday at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

He played it cool, calm and collected down the stretch and finished with four simple pars to card a final round of 66 to fend off Brendon Todd and Brandon Wu.

Former World No.1 Rose had not tasted victory since he won at Torrey Pines in 2019.

What followed was Rose making an ill-advised equipment switch to Honma and he plummeted down the Official World Golf Rankings, falling outside the world's top 50.

Rose has been in solid form this season though and carded four rounds in the 60s on the Monterey Peninsula to signal a return to form.

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Asked what went into his victory, Rose told the media:

"Just a ton of little, small factors. I've been kind of not super happy with my equipment. I made a change out of the blue this week.

"New irons, new shafts. That seemed to make things a little bit easier. Certainly on like the three-quarter shots into greens which you needed this week to try to take a bit of spin off the ball."

The tournament was delayed because of the weather. Rose had a two-stroke lead when play resumed in perfect conditions.

A sign that it was perhaps meant to be came early in the week when Rose recorded a hole-in-one on a dreary Friday.

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Justin Rose WITB 2023

Driver: Callaway Paradym (8.5 degrees; Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X)
Fairway Woods: TaylorMade M6 (15 and 18 degrees; Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited 80 TX)
Irons: Cobra KING Tour (4-PW; Project X)
Wedges: Titliest Vokey Design SM9 (52 and 56 degrees), TaylorMade Milled Grind Hi-Toe (60 degrees; KBS Hi-Rev 2.0 135 X)
Putter: Axis 1 Rose
Ball: Titleist Pro V1

Rose continued:

"[I[ caught a nice break in terms of when they blew the horn playing Monterey Peninsula with some more favourable conditions yesterday morning. [I made a] hole-in-one. There's been a lot going this week.

"I think overall, if I had to think about one thing it was just knowing I'm trending, just sometimes when you're trending you kind of try a little too hard.

"I think the format this week, playing with amateurs, kind of just mellowed me out to the point where I let it happen. I let my good golf come forward. It's obviously a learning lesson in that."

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The win is all the more sweeter now given that he's secured his place for the 2023 Masters. That was in doubt given his world ranking.

Highlights of his round on Monday came in the form of sinking a 25-foot putt for birdie at No.11 and a superb lob wedge on No. 14 that allowed him to stretch his lead and enjoy the walk.

Rose added:

"One thing I have realized is obviously I haven't been playing enough great golf, but when I do play half decent I do give myself chances to win. It was nice today to tee off with a lead.

"When I first started -- yesterday as well -- I got to sleep on it two nights now. It was awesome."

The next tournament on the PGA Tour is the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Rory McIlroy will headline the event, making his first start at TPC Scottsdale since 2021.

The defending champion is Scottie Scheffler.

Next page: Tiger announces new TGL signees