Justin Rose produced a brilliant finish to take advantage of a stunning collapse from world number one Dustin Johnson and win the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.
Rose began the final round eight shots behind Johnson and was still six adrift at the turn, but fired five birdies in a back nine of 31 to complete a closing 67, with Johnson slumping to a 77.
For Paul Dunne it was a very disappointing finish to what had been a successful week so far. The 24-year-old went into the final round in a tie for 12th at six under but struggled to a final round 79 – which included six bogeys, a double bogey and just a solitary birdie – to finish one over and in a tie for 38th.
However, it’s a mark of just how far Dunne has come that he still takes home a cheque for €54,390 from his World Golf Championship debut and now heads for Antalya and the Turkish Airlines Open, followed by the Nedbank Challenge in South Africa before the Race to Dubai finale at the DP World Tour Championship – all of which are no-cut big money events.
Dunne has slipped to 14th in the Race to Dubai standings after being leapfrogged by Henrik Stenson and Matt Fitzpatrick after both claimed top 10 finishes. However, the Greystones man is still just over €300,000 outside the top 10 – all of whom get a share of the bonus pool dished out at the end of the season. Incidentally, the man who now occupies 10th spot is Rory McIlroy who will only drop further given the fact that he will not play for the rest of the year.
Dunne now occupies fourth place in both the European points list and the world points list for next year’s European Ryder Cup team, albeit with a lot of golf to be played before the team is confirmed.
At 14 under par, Rose finished two shots ahead of Ryder Cup partner Henrik Stenson, Brooks Koepka and Johnson, who had started the day with a six-shot lead in pursuit of a record third World Golf Championship victory this year.
Rose’s second WGC title lifts him from 13th in the world to sixth, with Koepka and Stenson now seventh and eighth respectively, pushing the absent McIlroy down to ninth.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Rose, whose chances looked to have disappeared when he bogeyed the eighth and ninth to reach the turn in level par.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve won, or at least it feels like that. I’ve won every year since 2010, if you include the Olympics last year. I’ve left it late this year but it feels amazing.
“Obviously we all know the position DJ was in and I think today was the kind of day that the leader probably didn’t want. You want a six-shot lead any time, but this is the kind of day where that kind of swing is possible.
“I shot five under in tough conditions and he had to play good golf to keep it around par today, and obviously he made a few mistakes. It was really tricky out there and obviously I played one of the best back nines I’ve played in forever.
“To shoot 31 on the back to come through, I saved my best till last.”
Rose’s 10th European Tour title lifts him to third in the Race to Dubai with three events remaining, albeit still more than a million points behind leader Tommy Fleetwood, who finished in a tie for 20th after a closing 74.
“It kind of gives me a realistic chance now, if I was to have a special end to the season with Turkey and Dubai,” added Rose, who topped the money list in 2007.
Johnson, who won at Sheshan International in 2013, had recorded 22 birdies in the first three rounds but failed to manage a single one on Sunday.
The former US Open champion bogeyed the first two holes and dropped further shots on the 12th, 15th and 16th to join Greg Norman, Sergio Garcia and Spencer Levin as the only men since 1996 to lead a PGA Tour event by six shots with a round to play and fail to win.
“It was tough conditions today and I felt like I actually drove it pretty well, other than the drive on two,” Johnson said.
“Even making the turn I’m two over, which is fine. I know I’ve got to just play solid on the back nine. I didn’t make any putts. I felt like I rolled it good. Just nothing was going in the hole.
“I hit a couple of really bad iron shots. That was probably the key there on 14. I just chunked it. Same thing on 15, I just chunked it. That cost me two shots there.
“And then bogeying 16, that’s just bad. So I just gave a few away.”
Collated fourth round scores & totals in the World Golf Championships — HSBC Champions, Sheshan International GC, Shanghai, China (USA unless stated, par 72):
274 Justin Rose (Eng) 67 68 72 67
276 Brooks Koepka 64 68 73 71, Dustin Johnson 68 63 68 77, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 68 69 69 70
280 Peter Uihlein 72 67 69 72, Kyle Stanley 71 68 69 72, Rafael Cabrera-Bello (Spa) 68 70 70 72
281 Brian Harman 68 69 70 74
282 Bernd Wiesberger (Aut) 71 70 70 71, Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng) 68 69 72 73
283 Tony Finau 67 72 74 70, Jason Day (Aus) 69 74 72 68, Tyrrell Hatton (Eng) 68 70 71 74, Paul Casey (Eng) 71 72 69 71
284 Phil Mickelson 71 72 74 67, Branden Grace (Rsa) 74 69 72 69, Patrick Cantlay 68 74 69 73, Charles Howell III 72 67 71 74, Daisuke Kataoka (Jpn) 71 72 69 72
285 Tommy Fleetwood (Eng) 71 70 70 74, Ashun Wu (Chn) 67 72 73 73, Jhonattan Vegas (Ven) 70 73 72 70, Hideto Tanihara (Jpn) 72 70 74 69
286 Daniel Berger 68 71 75 72, Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha) 65 70 75 76, Pat Perez 72 69 76 69, Poom Saksansin (Tha) 73 70 68 75, Matthew Southgate (Eng) 68 71 74 73, Hyun-woo Ryu (Kor) 69 73 69 75, Chez Reavie 69 74 71 72
287 Alexander Levy (Fra) 71 71 71 74, S.S.P Chawrasia (Ind) 72 70 73 72, Alex Noren (Swe) 72 72 72 71, Thorbjorn Olesen (Den) 72 73 69 73, Matt Kuchar 67 70 72 78
288 Russell Henley 75 68 76 69, Jon Rahm (Spa) 72 74 69 73
289 Paul Dunne (Ire) 67 73 70 79, Haydn Porteous (Rsa) 66 74 74 75, Marc Leishman (Aus) 71 79 68 71, Gavin Green (Mal) 65 74 73 77, Wen-chong Liang (Chn) 72 70 73 74, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 73 72 76 68
290 Richie Ramsay (Sco) 73 71 75 71, Xinjun Zhang (Chn) 71 77 71 71
291 Francesco Molinari (Ita) 77 71 72 71, Phachara Khongwatmai (Th) 69 78 70 74, Xander Schauffele 71 75 74 71, Ryan Fox (Nzl) 71 69 75 76
292 Haotong Li (Chn) 72 76 71 73, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn) 74 74 72 72, Hudson Swafford 70 74 75 73, Adam Scott (Aus) 72 72 74 74, Charl Schwartzel (Rsa) 73 70 73 76, Lucas Glover 71 75 76 70, Fabrizio Zanotti (Par) 73 71 71 77, Patrick Reed 66 70 82 74
293 Chan Kim 69 72 72 80, Ross Fisher (Eng) 77 70 73 73, David Lipsky 69 70 72 82, Jordan Smith (Eng) 69 73 74 77
294 Scott Hend (Aus) 71 68 78 77, Bill Haas 71 73 76 74, Wesley Bryan 77 72 71 74
295 Michael Hendry (Nzl) 73 75 71 76, Adam Hadwin (Can) 69 74 79 73
296 Mike Lorenzo-Vera (Fra) 71 71 77 77, Matthew Griffin (Aus) 68 77 74 77
297 Zecheng Dou (Chn) 71 76 75 75, Si Woo Kim (Kor) 71 71 79 76
299 Graeme Storm (Eng) 75 74 75 75, Thomas Pieters (Bel) 75 79 69 76
300 Yan-wei Liu (Chn) 72 73 77 78
301 Ashley Hall (Aus) 74 71 80 76
304 Andrew Dodt (Aus) 74 79 74 77
308 Brandon Stone (Rsa) 78 87 68 75
311 Yi Cao (Chn) 74 83 79 75
