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FedExCup champion Justin Rose has kick started his assault on going back-to-back in the season long race with an impressive record-breaking win at Torrey Pines. Welcome to the Monday Finish where Rose stumbled, then steadied himself, on the way to cementing himself at the top of golfs elite. FIVE OBSERVATIONS 1. The Best Can Always Adjust Justin Rose had the weight of history on his shoulders on Sunday and very easily could have folded his lead when his start was less than stellar. The FedExCup champion is better than that though. Never mind the fact he’d only converted four of the 15 times he had the 54-hole lead on the PGA TOUR. Or the fact nine of the last 10 Farmers Insurance Open winners had come from behind on Sunday. Or the fact he played the first five holes two over (with three bogeys) to bring the chasing pack into play. Rose rallied from that point like an elite player should, playing the last 13 holes in five under. Even when Adam Scott produced a small run at him late on Rose snuffed it out with a clutch wedge shot on the 18th to preserve a two-shot win. The best players can adjust mid-round under the gun. Rose is clearly one of those. Read more on his win here. 2. Armlock works Adam Scott should persevere with his new armlock putting. After making a last-minute switch to the putting style before the tournament the former PLAYERS champion produced a rare great week on the greens. His runner up finish was his best since winning the World Golf Championships – Mexico Championship in 2016. It was just the 10th time since the beginning of 2016 Scott finished inside the top 25 of the field in Strokes Gained: Putting. He’s been inside the top six, including two wins, on eight of those ten times. With Bryson DeChambeau, Matt Kuchar, Webb Simpson and Keegan Bradley all using the method to wins in the last year Scott could very well be next. Read more on Scott’s efforts here. 3. Pick Hideki Did you see the two shots Hideki Matsuyama hit on Sunday from fairway bunkers in to par-5s? His first, from 273 yards on the ninth that finished 21-feet from the hole was incredible. His second, from only 228 yards, had to carry the famous pond in front of the 18th green before settling at 17-feet. Those were just two spectacular shots on a very solid week from the Japanese star. So here’s the bottom line after the 5-time PGA TOUR winners third place finish at Torrey Pines… if you don’t pick him to win next week at the Waste Management Phoenix Open then you’re a brave soul. Matsuyama has two wins already at TPC Scottsdale, plus a T2 and T4. The only blemish was a WD last season after a wrist injury curtailed his quest of a three-peat. 4. Gooch sets base towards TOUR card Talor Gooch had a relatively tough rookie stretch last season on the PGA TOUR, failing to get a single top 10. He finished outside the FedExCup Playoffs but did manage to scrape his way into conditional status, a place where knowing your next start can be tough. But the 27-year-old has run into some nice form the last two weeks, finishing fourth at the Desert Classic and then tied third at Torrey Pines. The first effort secured his spot at the Farmers Insurance Open and this effort gets him back out there again this week in Phoenix. At a career high 27th in the FedExCup Gooch has set a base to make his first Playoffs. He has 328 points now, already more than his 308 from last season. Last season it took 377 points to make the Playoffs. Read more about Gooch here. 5 Big Cat will be better for the run Tiger Woods had opportunity to be a real contender at Torrey Pines once again but at crucial times he couldn’t turn his crisp iron play into birdies. Woods’ bid for an eighth Farmers Insurance Open was most likely lost late in the second round when he was closing out his day on the front side of Torrey Pines North. After a double bogey at the turn set the 80-time PGA TOUR winner backwards Woods went back-to-back birdies on his 12th and 13th holes of the round to gain some momentum. In his remaining five holes, two were par-5s and two were short getable par-4s. Had he made his move through that section he could have been heading for the weekend with a serious sniff. But instead Woods only parred home and sat way off the pace. His final round 5-under 67 was the pick of the week and left him with a T20 finish and some momentum going forward towards the Genesis Open in a few weeks’ time. Read more on Tiger’s upcoming plans here. FIVE INSIGHTS 1. Rose’s 21-under 267 (63-66-69-69) was the lowest score at the Farmers Insurance Open since the South Course was toughened up in the early 2000s, breaking Tiger Woods’ 19-under mark from 2008. 2. This was Rose’s 10th PGA TOUR win in his 326th start, the most by an Englishman since 1945. Three of Rose’s wins have come since the start of last season. He’s finished in the top 10 in 13 of his last 21 TOUR starts, including eight top-3 finishes and just one missed cut. 3. Rose ranked fifth on the Torrey Pines South Course in Strokes Gained: Approach-the-Green – outperforming the field by +1.876 strokes per round on approach shots. 4. Rose played the par-3s at Torrey Pines a combined 6 under par. Rose was one of five players to not make a bogey or worse on a par 3 for the week (of players who made cut). His 6 under par was the best in the field and his second-best par 3 performance in a single week of his PGA TOUR career. 5. Rose and Adam Scott became the sixth and seventh players to surpass $50 million in PGA TOUR career earnings. WYNDHAM REWARDS The Wyndham Rewards Top 10 is in its first season and adds another layer of excitement to the FedExCup Regular Season. The top 10 players at the end of the FedExCup Regular Season will earn bonus payouts from the Wyndham Rewards Top 10. Xander Schauffele remains in top spot while reining FedExCup champion Justin Rose moves to sixth with his win at Torrey Pines.

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RIDGELAND, S.C. — Rory McIlroy made two eagles that made the rest of his day feel better Saturday at THE CJ CUP in South Carolina. His 4-under 67 was enough for a one-shot lead and a clear road to return to No. 1 in the world. McIlroy, the reigning FedExCup champion, hit a 6-iron that took the slope and rolled out to 2 feet for eagle on the par-5 fourth. He smashed a 376-yard drive and made his second eagle with a 30-foot putt from the tightly mown grass off the green on the par-5 12th. The rest of the round was even par, a mix of good birdies and sloppy bogeys, and it added to a one-shot lead over Jon Rahm, Kurt Kitayama and K.H. Lee. “You take away those two holes and I was even par for the rest of the round. Felt like it was a little scrappy coming in, but did enough to hang in there and shoot a solid score,” McIlroy said. McIlroy was at 13-under 200, with hopes set on going back to No. 1 in the world for the ninth time in his career, and first time since the summer of 2020. Having been there, all he said he truly cared about was winning. Ditto for Rahm, who had to scrap his way through a series of bogeys for a 70. Rahm started the second round tied for the lead. He was five shots behind when McIlroy made his eagle on No. 12. But the big Spaniard was solid coming in at Congaree, picking off birdies with two good bunker shots and making a great escape for par on the 16th, where he purposely took free relief into the trees because of a tiny gap. “A lot of battle today. I’m proud of it,” Rahm said. “I’m standing on 12 tee … I thought things could get ugly. But I just stayed on my own game and tried to make some birdies coming in and put myself in position for tomorrow.” His only disappointment was not getting into the final group with McIlroy, a power group in the low country. Lee matched the low round of a day made challenging by some tees moved back and some pins in perilous positions. He also made amends on the 17th hole, the toughest at Congaree this week. Lee four-putted — the last three putts from 5 feet — for a double bogey Friday. This time he made one of only three birdies. “Much better than yesterday,” he said. Kitayama is the most curious of the contenders, a 29-year-old Californian who spent two years on the Korn Ferry Tour without much success, and then four years toiling across Asia and Europe, winning three times. He battled Rahm in the Mexico Open and finished one back. He finished one behind Xander Schauffele in the Genesis Scottish Open. Saturday was the first time he had a share of the lead going into the weekend on the PGA TOUR, and he held his own. He was tied for the lead until his 65-foot putt across the 17th green ran some 7 feet by the cup, and he missed the comebacker for par. Aaron Wise, much like Rahm, also had to piece together a game that didn’t feel like it was there. He had consecutive bogeys in the middle of the back nine, but scratched out pars coming in for a 71 and put him in the group three shots behind. Tom Kim had a 69 and was four shots back in his bid to win for the third time before turning 21. The 20-year-old has won two of his last five starts.

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• COURSE: Firestone Country Club (South), 7,400 yards, par 70. From beginnings as a generous perk from Harvey Firestone to employees of his tire company, the club wound up making its own name as a major host even before joining the World Golf Championships lineup. The South course opened in 1929, with Robert Trent Jones overseeing upgrades for the 1960 PGA Championship captured by Jay Hebert. The PGA of America brought its showcase event back again in 1966 and ’75, by which time Firestone had become home of the World Series of Golf. That event moved under the WGC banner in 1999. • FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 550 points. • CHARITY: The First Tee is the primary beneficiary of World Golf Championships events. In addition, Northern Ohio Golf Charities has designated Akron Children’s Hospital and University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital as the tournament’s signature recipients. In all, the event has donated more than $46 million to Northeast Ohio causes. • FIELD WATCH: Newly crowned Open Championship winner Jordan Spieth joins defending champion and FedExCup No. 2 Dustin Johnson atop a current roster of 78 qualifiers. The field features 33 of the top 35 in the FedExCup standings. … Berths remain available for the RBC Canadian Open winner, plus anyone who enters the top 50 in Monday’s world rankings. … Recent winners Bryson DeChambeau (John Deere Classic) and Xander Schauffele (Greenbrier Classic) are among eight men making their World Golf Championships debut. … Rod Pampling, winner in Las Vegas last November, is playing his first WGC since the 2009 WGC HSBC Champions in China. … Lee Westwood is set for his 58th WGC start, still in pursuit of his first WGC victory. • 72-HOLE RECORD: 259, Tiger Woods (2000). • 18-HOLE RECORD: 61, José María Olazábal (1st round, 1990), Tiger Woods (2nd round, 2000 and 2nd round, 2013), Sergio Garcia (2nd round, 2014). • LAST YEAR: Johnson followed up his breakthrough U.S. Open triumph with another victory on the big stage, using a 66-66 weekend to overtake Jason Day for his third WGC crown. Coming off a post-Open trip to the Bahamas, Johnson showed some early rust before finding his groove again on the weekend. He trailed Day by three with six holes left, but birdies at Nos. 13 and 14 trimmed the gap before a double bogey by Day, who found water at Firestone’s 655-yard 16th hole. Another Johnson birdie at No.17 sealed the win, holding off Scott Piercy’s late charge. Piercy (70) finished one shot back, the second time in three weeks he’d come in as runner-up to Johnson. Day’s 72 left him three behind, sharing third with Spieth, Matt Kuchar and Kevin Chappell. • STORYLINES: Johnson, already a winner at Mexico and Dell Technologies Match Play, has a chance to become the first man to capture three WGC crowns in the same year. Though Tiger Woods owns 18 WGC titles, he never won more than two in a season. … Johnson hasn’t won since the WGC Dell Technologies Match Play, before hurting his back in a slip-and-fall mishap in Augusta. He said last week he’s still feeling effects from the injury. … Spieth, whose triumph at Royal Birkdale moved him to the top of the FedExCup chart and No.2 in the world rankings, returns to action in quest of a third straight victory. He won the Travelers Championship before heading across the Atlantic. … Rory McIlroy, the 2014 champion, hopes to build on an uptick in form at Royal Birkdale that propelled him to a share of fourth. He had missed three of his previous four cuts. • SHORT CHIPS: Shane Lowry, who triumphed in 2015, and Hunter Mahan (2010) are the only Firestone champions in the past 22 years who don’t also have a major title to their names. That includes the last five editions of the old World Series of Golf. … Argentina’s Andres Romero is the only man who comes to Firestone outside the top 125 in the FedExCup standings, though he’s focused more attention on Europe this year and has made just eight PGA TOUR starts. He’s in via his victory at Europe’s BMW International Open. • TELEVISION: Thursday-Friday, 1:30-6:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). Saturday-Sunday, noon-1:30 p.m. (GC); 2-6 p.m. (CBS). • PGA TOUR LIVE: Thursday-Friday, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. (featured groups), 2-6:30 p.m. (featured holes). Saturday-Sunday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. (featured holes). • RADIO: Thursday-Friday, 1-7 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1-6 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).

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