3 Years After Rejecting LIV Golf, 1x Major Champion Finally Comes Clean: ‘Could Never Get Comfortable..’

While many pros jumped ships and joined LIV Golf, golfers like Viktor Hovland and Ludvig Aberg have continuously disregarded their lucrative offers. But the Scandinavian golfers were not the first ones who shattered LIV Golf’s dreams. Three years ago, one more golfer turned away from a bountiful offer that was put forth by the breakaway league.

The 43-year-old golfer from Johannesburg had rejected LIV Golf at the time when golfing icons like Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, and Sergio Garcia signed million-dollar deals. Recently, the Englishman revealed the reason behind his decision to stay on the PGA Tour and the DP World Tour.

One-time major winner opens up about LIV Golf deal

Justin Rose is a veteran of the American and European circuits. The 43-year-old had long played with veterans like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. The choice Rose made echoed what Woods had also done. It also turned out to be extremely fruitful for the former World No. 1 as he went on to end his four-year winless drought on the PGA Tour.

Before that, he was out of the top 50 and at the lowest rank of his career. At that time, LIV Golf had contacted him. The 43-year-old checked all the right boxes as a golfer who would sign the deal. He was approaching the later stages of his career, growing old, and would expect to want easy golf events like a few of his counterparts did.

In the latest tweet by NUCLR Golf mentioned how, Rose explained that it was his childhood dream to play in the majors. He said, “I could never get comfortable with the giving up on the childhood dreams of the majors.” Moreover, he exclaimed that at the point, he was in a situation where he had to earn his way into the major because he didn’t “have those long-term exemptions to buffer it.”

Rose made it to the list of major winners when he won his one and only major back in 2013 at the U.S. Open, and thus he could not be exempted from any of the three other majors for a long period of time. The only way to get into the majors is by getting into the top 50 rank on OWGR, and to reach that rank, Rose made a successful attempt in 2023 and went on to create history along the way.

Justin Rose created history at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

At the start of the 2022–23 season, Justin Rose won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. He last won on the PGA Tour in 2019 at the Farmers Insurance Open. At the age of 42 years, six months, and seven days, Rose became the second oldest to win on the Tour after Phil Mickelson’s 2021 PGA Championship victory.

Read More: ‘I Wasn’t Aware’: Rory McIlroy Defends Bizarre 2-Stroke Penalty Amid Upsetting PGA Tour Return

In the history of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Rose was the first-ever European golfer to win the tournament. This was his 11th victory on the tour, and on that occasion, he went on to share why he thought the PGA Tour was better for his career. Rose wanted to play “in events like this [Pro-Am] that have a great history, that give access to iconic golf courses,” per The Telegraph report. 

This victory had catapulted his rank inside the top 50, making him eligible to play in the 2023 Masters, though he ended at T16. The 43-year-old is now defending the Pro-Am title against a strong field of 80 at the Spyglass Hill Golf Course. Rose is currently tied for eight, with four under 68. Will he contest for the lead once again? Stay tuned to find out!

Watch This Story | ‘Big Stretch There’: Golf Fans Left Fuming As Serious Allegations Over PGA Tour Involving LIV Golf Go Viral