Weekly PGA Recap: Justin Rose to the Occasion

The leaderboard at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans was so crowded you'd almost have thought it was Bourbon Street at 4 in the morning. Except that the golfers were wearing clothes.

Hour and hours of rain delays the first three days at TPC Louisiana made it difficult to fully track who was where. But a dozen golfers were within two shots of the lead at the halfway point, which was reached Saturday, and 10 were still within three strokes after the third round, which was completed early Sunday morning.

There was no mistaking who was on top at the end, though, as Justin Rose emphatically birdied his 29th and 30th holes of a long day to edge Cameron Tringale by a single shot. First-round co-leader Boo Weekley was another stroke back, and Jason Day disappointingly tied for fourth, three behind.

After completing the final 12 holes of his third round on Sunday morning for a 7-under 65, Rose found himself tied with Day. But the two did not play together in the final round. With about 10 hours' worth of delays and suspensions over the first three days, golfers went off split tees in threesomes the last two rounds, with no repairing after 54 holes.

Rose started about 40 minutes before Day's final group, so there was a lot of golf behind him. And with lift, clean and place in effect, golfers were throwing darts to climb a jam-packed leaderboard. Rose was in the lead heading to 17, but felt he needed to be aggressive with so many golfers behind him. He drilled a 5-iron to 10 feet on the par-3 17th and made the birdie putt, then picked up another shot on the par-5 finishing hole to close with a 66.

Impressively, Rose didn't post a bogey in his final 66 holes of the week, finishing at 22-under 266. He had a bogey and a double in his first six holes on Thursday, and that was that.

Rose thus notched a PGA Tour victory for the sixth successive season -- only Dustin Johnson with eight in a row has more -- and completely left his remarkably poor play from the beginning of 2015 in the rear-view mirror. His runner-up at the Masters was a harbinger.

The Englishman will move to No. 6 in the world as he heads to San Francisco for this week's new-fangled WGC-Cadillac Match Play. But how much will he and the others heading to Harding Park have left in the tank after such a difficult week, with round-robin matches beginning on Wednesday?

As Day put it after playing 33 holes on Sunday, "The early days and the hot days, and just the long days in general kind of finally caught up to me. I played great all week, but this final round just had a lot of mental errors."

Rose, Day, Johnson, Keegan Bradley, Marc Leishman, Bernd Wiesberger and Billy Horschel are those who made the Zurich cut and are in the Match Play. The folks at Zurich chartered a plane to send them cross-country on Sunday night.

MONDAY TAKEAWAY

Cameron Tringale

Bidding for this first win, Tringale went out in 30 in the final round and had the lead at the turn. But he cooled on the back nine and, needing to hole his 50-foot chip for eagle on 18 to force a playoff, agonizingly came up less than two feet short. Tringale tied for fifth in Houston a month ago, so something seemingly has changed for the former Georgia Tech star.

Boo Weekley

The fan favorite rode the first round co-lead with Brendon de Jonge to a solo third, his fourth top-10 of what's becoming a very nice season. Weekley has made only eight of 13 cuts, but when he does reach the weekend, half the time he's scored big checks. If you can live with that up-and-downness, Weekley is a fun guy to have on your team.

Jason Day

Technically, this will go down as a failure to convert a 54-hole lead. And Day has now won in such situations only once in five tries. But this was a bit of an aberration, having to play almost two full rounds on Sunday. On the other hand, Rose was dealt largely the same hand. Day was sixth in the world entering the week and is seventh in the FedEx point standings, but you'd think someone like that would have more on his resume than three career wins. One of them, of course, was last year's Match Play.

Jim Herman

I've been tracking Herman for a few years now, drafted him last year, expecting bigger things than I got before dumping him. I was wrong -- at least in 2014. He was coming off his first two career top-10s in 2013, but went belly-up a year later. Now this season, the big-hitting veteran has two top-10s, with Sunday's T4 marking his best showing in 80 career events. Herman has four top-25s in 15 starts, but he's also missed six cuts. He's No. 1 on the entire tour in ball striking and greens in regulation. (Strokes gained-putting, um, he's 174th.) Maybe at age 37, something has finally clicked for Herman, and he could be an asset if your team is in need of some help.

Chad Campbell

Long ago, the future appeared quite bright for Campbell, who notched his fourth career win in 2007. But the strong play tailed off, and the Charlie Brown look-alike didn't even make the FedEx Cup playoffs the last two years, with only one top-10 each season. He just got his first of 2015, tying for eighth in New Orleans to stand 97th in points. It's possible he could register another top-10 or two this year, but if he's on your team, it's just like Lucy pulling away the football. Good luck with that.

Trevor Immelman

It's not really news anymore that the 2008 Masters champion is now around 600th in the world and outside the top 200 in the point standings, or even that he missed the cut in New Orleans. What may constitute news is that a former Masters champion -- and a somewhat recent one, at that -- is entered in next week's Web.com Tour event. That would be the United Leasing Championship Presented by PTI, and whatever that is, it probably has nothing to do with Kornheiser and Wilbon. Immelman has made only 2-of-9 PGA cuts this season, with no top-40 showings. In comparison, Campbell looks positively Spiethian.

Steve Stricker

Stricker doesn't play much anymore, but he still makes cuts -- as he did at the Masters, his first event in four months following back surgery. But he missed the Zurich weekend by two strokes, ending the current PGA Tour best streak at 37 cuts in a row. (Matt Kuchar now is first with 22.) Which may mean that the 48-year-old summoned just enough of something to make a decent showing at Augusta. Stricker is not in the Match Play but will be at The Players Championship the following week. Proceed with caution.

Nick Watney

Remember a few months ago when Nick Watney was rekindling thoughts of the old Nick Watney? Well, don't look now, but Nick Watney is back to being the new Nick Watney. And, for Nick Watney owners, that's not a good thing. Since being runner-up at Pebble in February the week after tying for seventh at Torrey Pines, Watney (no first name needed on sixth reference) has nothing better than a T22 in six starts, with two missed cuts, including Zurich. He's 32nd in points and should get a decent run in the playoffs, but don't be surprised if we've already seen the best of Watney in 2015.

Richard Sterne

Sterne is a South African with six wins on the European Tour. He secured his PGA Tour card for the first time via the Web.com Tour last fall. And while no one was expecting him to be adding a seventh career win any time soon, Sterne's performance has been shocking, and dismal. If earning ZERO dollars in nine events can be called "dismal." Sterne withdrew 10 holes into the second round of the Zurich, without citing a reason. He was 4-over and bound to miss the cut. In comparison, Immelman looks positively Campbellian.