On the range: Thursday at the 2018 QBE Shootout

SAN DIEGO – Justin Rose needed a fresh start. After missing four short putts in his first six holes – and watching his three-shot lead dwindle to a single stroke – Rose drew a line. It was a metaphorical line in the sand, but he drew it in his scorecard. It was time to start over. “I said, ‘All right, we build the round from this moment on,’â€� he said. He did. Rose birdied three of the next four holes, then grinded through Torrey Pines’ difficult back nine to secure a two-shot win in the Farmers Insurance Open. Torrey Pines is Tiger’s territory, but Rose supplanted him in the tournament’s record book. 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. He was two shots lower than Woods’ winning total in 2008. The reigning FedExCup champion is now sixth in the standings after winning his third start of the season. This was Rose’s 10th PGA TOUR win, the most by an Englishman since World War II. Three of Rose’s wins have come since the start of last season. It’s been an incredibly consistent run that culminated with a win in last season’s FedExCup. He’s finished in the top 10 in 13 of his last 21 TOUR starts, including eight top-3 finishes. He’s missed just one cut. And it was another victory at a tough test. Torrey Pines was softened by last week’s rain, but the rough was lush. Rose’s has won at storied venues like Merion, Colonial, Muirfield Village, Aronimink and Congressional. MUST READS: Round 4, Farmers Insurance Open Tiger planning schedule, hopes to peak for PLAYERS Championship Adam Scott’s recent putter switch propels him to best finish since 2016 Gooch continues strong form, gets second straight top-10 finish “I always pride myself on the golf courses I’ve been able to win on and this one is another very great golf course with a lot of history,â€� Rose said. “I love winning on great tests of golf and this one will give some special feelings because of that.â€� Rose also joined Woods as the only player to convert a 54-hole lead at this event over the last decade. Nine of the last 10 leaders entering Sunday had lost the tournament. He was in danger of joining them after his tough start Sunday. The way Rose won – by battling back after his lead was in jeopardy – showed a side of the Englishman that is often overshadowed by his genteel nature. “He has a nasty streak in him, for sure,â€� said Rory McIlroy. “Justin is, he’s a grinder. He’s learned the hard way, with the way he started his career (by missing his first 21 cuts). “I don’t think there’s many mentally stronger people in the world of golf than Justin Rose just because of what he’s been through and coming out the other end of it.â€� Rose started Sunday’s round with consecutive misses from 8 feet, then missed a 7-footer for par at the fifth hole and three-putted the par-5 sixth hole. Jon Rahm was just one stroke behind him. “I never lost the lead so I had to stay patient,â€� Rose said. “Definitely there were times in my career where I’ve had decent sized leads and you start to throw it away a little bit and you panic.  I just knew I couldn’t do that today. I stayed calm, I stayed with it.â€� Walking off the sixth green, Rose told himself to play like the man that he is: the unanimous No. 1 player in the world. Not only is he the reigning FedExCup champion, but he sits atop the world ranking. “I just said, “You’re No. 1 in the world for a reason, just start playing like it, please,’â€� Rose said. It started with a 138-yard approach to 5 feet on the seventh hole. He gave an understated fist pump when that putt fell. Then he got up-and-down from a bunker on the par-5 ninth. He hit a 150-yard approach to 8 feet on the 10th hole to take a four-shot lead with eight holes remaining. Then he had to grind. He parred two of the South Course’s hardest holes, Nos. 11 and 12, after hitting long-irons within 30 feet. His caddie, Gareth Lord, called Rose’s 4-iron on 11 his best shot of the day. Lord is filling in for Rose’s longtime caddie, Mark Fulcher, as he recovers from heart surgery. “His iron shots, the way he takes yardage off. That was a holding 4-iron. If he hits it normal, he’s going to go through the back. If he hits 5-iron, we’re 35, 40 feet short,â€� Lord said. “He said, ‘I’ve got that shot.’ And to pull it off the way he did, he’s pretty good under pressure.â€� Then he had to lean on his short game to maintain his advantage. Rose finished second in greens hit this week, but he had to save par after missing three in a row. He deftly executed a touchy chip on the par-5 13th, made a sand save on 14 and holed a 9-footer for par on the next hole. He made a 20-foot birdie putt on the par-3 16th, then finished with a birdie after wedging close. This was Rose’s first PGA TOUR win in January, and erased questions about his recent switch to Honma equipment. This was just his second start with the new clubs. “Everything has worked out better than I would have hoped,â€� he said.

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Four-time major champion Brooks Koepka is the latest golfer to defect from the PGA Tour to the LIV Golf Invitational Series, sources have confirmed to ESPN.

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Collin Morikawa doesn’t always use a TaylorMade Hi-Toe wedge, but he does when he plays in a U.S. Open. On a week-to-week basis, the five-time PGA TOUR winner and two-time major champion travels with multiple lob wedges. For example, GolfWRX.com photographed Morikawa with four 60-degree wedges in the bag during a practice session at The Genesis Invitational, including a TaylorMade MG2 with 8 degrees of bounce, a TaylorMade MG3 with 9 degrees of bounce and a TaylorMade Milled Grind Hi-Toe wedge with 9 degrees of bounce. “Bounce” refers to the shaping of the bottom of a wedge, which is called the sole. Generally speaking, higher bounce options are best in soft conditions to keep the wedge from digging too much, and low bounce options are best in firm conditions. Morikawa keeps his options open by carrying lob wedges that have different sole shapes so he can easily adjust to the different courses and conditions he experiences during the season. He figures out what 60-degree wedge he’ll use for the week during practice rounds and practice sessions. When it comes to the U.S. Open, though, Morikawa opts for a TaylorMade Hi-Toe lob wedge, which has a unique shape and face design. This week, he’s using a model that has 7 degrees of bounce. Compared to a traditionally shaped wedge, the Hi-Toe has a raised toe section and grooves that stretch across the entire face, which is appealing to Morikawa when navigating the U.S. Open rough. “When people talk about U.S. Opens, they always talk about the rough and tough conditions,” Morikawa told GolfWRX on Wednesday. “I think every U.S. Open I’ve used a Hi-Toe. …When there’s really long rough and the ball sits down, and you’re going to have a lot of different lies, I think the Hi-Toe obviously gives you a lot more surface area on the face to hit the grooves. It just allows you to get away with the misses. I think it’s a lot easier to chip out of the rough. If you find a grind that works out of the fairways, it’s awesome. To be honest, I don’t know why I don’t use it more. It works.” Like most U.S. Open setups, The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., has long and thick rough surrounding the greens. Even though Morikawa is ranked fifth on TOUR in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green, he’s bound to miss some greens this week due to their small size and the usually firm conditions. He uses the Hi-Toe to increase his chances of saving par, even from thick lies. When he does get the ball onto the putting surface, Morikawa is still rolling with a new TaylorMade Spider GT Rollback that he switched to at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday ( ). The switch to a mallet came as somewhat of a surprise, because Morikawa has traditionally used a blade-style putter. He’s relied on the TaylorMade TP Juno for most of his career, and he used it to win the Open Championship in 2021. While he has experimented in brief stints with mallet styles throughout his career, he putts most often with a blade. So why the recent change? Morikawa told GolfWRX.com that the Spider GT Rollback helps him better match speed with his feels, and it all comes down to TaylorMade’s Pure Roll 2 insert that has wide, downward facing grooves (which are designed to produce a quicker roll, rather than skidding). “It has wider grooves. I don’t really know the science behind it. It just comes off the face how I want, and that’s the biggest thing,” Morikawa told GolfWRX. “At least it’s reacting to how I’m feeling. And from there hopefully we can put a good stroke on it.” As Morikawa explained, the mallet style also helps with the way the putter sits on the surface, and the plumber’s neck on his Spider GT Rollback is similar to his previous Juno blade gamer, so there’s a sense of familiarity. These tools helped Morikawa to a 1-under 69 in the first round as he seeks to win the third leg of the career Grand Slam.

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