Weekly Fantasy Golf Recap: Rose Gold

This article is part of our Weekly Fantasy Golf Recap series.

Justin Rose ended 2022 having fallen to No. 76 in the world rankings. He was a former No. 1. But, honestly, that wasn't half bad for a 42-year-old.

So, what would be a good ranking for someone now 45 years old? 100th? 125th?

How about third?

On Sunday, Rose completed the most dominating performance of his seemingly never-ending career, winning the Farmers Insurance Open by seven strokes at venerable Torrey Pines.

In winning the tournament for the second time and for the 13th time on the PGA Tour, the Englishman became the Farmers' oldest winner ever, set the tournament scoring mark at 23-under and became the event's first wire-to-wire winner in more than 70 years. (As you'll recall, that was Tommy Bolt in 1951.)

And since Tiger Woods won this tournament seven times, all of those feats are remarkable.

Since 2022, when Rose appeared to be on the downside of what was already likely a Hall of Fame career, he has now won three times and finished runner-up in two majors, including last year's playoff loss to Rory McIlroy at the Masters.

He talked on Sunday of having to recommit himself a few years back.

"Started to play pretty poor golf I think in 2020, 2021 maybe in 2022," he told reporters at Torrey Pines. "I can't even remember, they all blend into one another. But I felt like at that point, yeah, I needed to make a shift but I don't want to go out like this. I don't want to just, having been No. 1 in the world, and just kind of drift into nowhere.

"So I felt like there was a bit of I'm-not-going-to-let-that-happen sort of mentality."

Seemed like a good plan!

All Rose has done since 2022 is gotten older. And better.

He won at Pebble Beach in 2023. He was runner-up at the Open Championship in 2024. He won the FedEx St. Jude event was a hard-luck runner-up to McIlroy at the Masters in 2025. He made his way onto the Ryder Cup team – for the seventh time – and played a key role in the Europeans winning on U.S. soil. He ended last year ranked 10th in the world.

Rose won his lone major to date at the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion. He reached No. 1 in the world in 2018 and spent 13 weeks there.

With these wins the past two years, he's exempt on tour at least through 2028, which is when he'll be 48.

So, what's left for an old guy who has accomplished so much?

"Yeah, majors is where I have my attention, for sure," Rose said. "I mean, obviously I take -- like I said, I've achieved a lot in the game, but I've achieved a lot of it just once. So I'll take multiple of anything that I've achieved for sure would be great. But if I look at my career, yeah, I've been really close to the Open, I've been really close to the Masters. The dream of winning all four was obviously the ultimate goal since I've been a kid. but it seems a long way off to think that way. 

"But if you think about some of the results I've had in the last year or 18 months, I'm not that far away, so may as well keep believing."

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Brooks Koepka
In the RotoWire DraftKings preview article, we wrote that a made cut would constitute a good week for Koepka. Mission accomplished. With all that was going on, the huge spotlight on him returning from LIV, Koepka admittedly was nervous. And rusty, having not played in months.

If he had putted better, he would've finished a lot better than a tie for 56th. He ranked 20th in SG: Approach and third in SG: Around-the-Green but only 74th in SG: Putting.

There's no guarantee that he improves with more reps, but Koepka will get right back at it this week at the raucous WM Phoenix Open, which he has won twice.

"Yeah, it will be good.. I'll enjoy next week," he said. "I love the chaos, I think it's fun. Yeah, it's been, what, four years since I've been back so I'm excited to get back out there to a place I'm familiar with, comfortable with and a place I love."

Si Woo Kim
Last year was good and bad for Kim. He ended in the top-50 to get access to every 2026 signature event, but he didn't have a lot of high finishes and didn't contend once. He may have found something toward the end of 2025, though. He closed the year with top-20s in two playoff events, then a T4 at the RSM. And now in 2026, he has come out hot: T11 at the Sony, T6 at the Amex and now co-runner-up at the Farmers. Kim is up to 30th OWGR, just off his career best of 28th.

Pierceson Coody
Coody is a very good putter. If he starts excelling in other areas, watch out. The Tour rookie led the Farmers field in SG: Off-the-Tee in sharing a three-way runner-up. He was also second in greens in regulation and a decent 21st in putting. But he really got it going on the greens late on Sunday, birdieing four of the last six holes for the best week of his young career. After also finishing top-20 in the first two tournaments of 2026, we have to pay close attention to Coody.

Ryo Hisatsune
The third player to share second, this was the top result in the emerging Japanese player's PGA Tour tenure. Hisatsune is still only 23 and had some very good weeks last season – a T4, T5 and T6. But he missed the playoffs. At such a young age and in a foreign country, Hisatsune should be much more comfortable on Tour in 2026.

Jake Knapp
Knapp's girlfriend Makena White passed away in September and he didn't play the rest of the year. He returned to golf at the Sony and tied for 11th. And now at the Farmers, he tied for fifth. Knapp acknowledged on Sunday that he didn't practice that much during the offseason but that he did start working with a new coach.

Stephan Jaeger
Jaeger had a poor finish to 2025. He made only three of his last nine cuts. He wasn't in danger of losing his card or anything like that; he just wasn't sharp. And then he missed the cut at the Amex. So a tie for fifth at the Farmers came out of nowhere. While it was a good week, we need to see more from Jaeger before thinking this wasn't an aberration.

Joel Dahmen
One of the more popular and likeable players on Tour, Dahmen finished 122nd in points last season. So he does not have full playing privileges in 2026. But he got into the Farmers field and made the most of it with a tie for seventh. He's also in this week's WM Phoenix Open, and another good week could vault him into the Aon Swing 5 and a spot in the signature events the following weeks at Pebble Beach and Riviera. But that's a big if. Even if he doesn't get in, Dahmen's top-10 this week gets him into the Cognizant later this month. He also made the cut at the Amex, so he's 2 for 2 this season.

Sahith Theegala
Theegala was slowed by injuries last year and plummeted to 146th in points. He's still exempt thanks to reaching the Tour Championship in 2024. But this season, he has to deliver or lose his card. He's again healthy and, so far, so good. Theegala tied for seventh at the Farmers, giving him back-to-back top-10s and three made cuts in 2026.

Tony Finau
Finau's game fell apart last season. It had been going downward for a couple of years. And then he came out this season and missed the cut at the Sony and Amex to fall out of the top-100 OWGR. But Torrey Pines has usually been kind to Finau, and he tied for 11th on the week. That was his best result in almost a year – since the relocated Genesis Invitational played last February at Torrey. One week is not nearly enough to believe Finau is back. We shall see.

Ryan Gerard
This just in: Gerard did not tie for second place. He had done so in his three previous worldwide starts. But a tie for 11th is a pretty dang good off-week. It moved him up to 23rd OWGR.

Adam Schenk
Schenk's game has seen better days – and for a few years now. But there's something about Torrey Pines that agrees with him. He had made the top-25 three years running coming in, and now it's four after tying for 11th. At $6,200, he was one of our DraftKings' picks in the $6,000s. Spoiler alert: We'll probably pick him again at next year's tournament.

MISSED CUTS

Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Aberg, Patrick Cantlay, J.J. Spaun, Will Zalatoris, Max Homa, Alex Noren. Schauffele had the longest active streak of made cuts broken at 72. Coming off a down year in 2025, this bear's watching. Scottie Scheffler (of course) now holds the longest active streak at 65 straight made cuts. … Aberg withdrew from the Amex and then badly missed the cut at the Farmers. Not good. … Cantlay tied for 13th last week so this was a surprise. … Spaun has now opened the season T40-MC, so he bears watching after a great 2025. … Zalatoris had a good week at the Amex so this MC was not expected. … Homa looked far better in the fall than during the main part of the season. So a T27-MC start to 2026 has to be disappointing. … Noren is ranked 13th in the world, but a lot of that is based on DP World Tour results.

KORN FERRY TOUR

Ian Holt made it back-to-back wins in the Bahamas and now Panama. So barely into February, he is now one win away from a battlefield promotion to the PGA Tour. He's up to 109th OWGR. Adam Hadwin, who lost his PGA Tour card after a brutally bad season, finished solo second in his first KFT start of 2026.

DP WORLD TOUR

Patrick Reed was bidding for his second straight title. He made it to a three-man playoff in Bahrain but was the first man out. Then Freddy Schott hung on to defeat Calum Hill. Reed moved back into the top-25 OWGR at No. 25. Sergio Garcia had the lead on the back nine but wound up tied for fourth.

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