The game of golf is rarely fair and professional golf is no different.
Justin Rose is unlikely to ever win the Masters after another heartbreaking defeat on Sunday.
Like numerous others before him, the Englishman has been right there so many times, and the cruelty is that we likely won’t get to see him show up at Augusta every April in the coming decades to tee it up or enjoy the Champion’s Dinner with his counterparts, with whom he certainly belongs.
Rose is set to be this era’s Tom Weiskopf or Greg Norman
At 45, it’s hard to imagine Rose will ever get a better opportunity than the one he had on Sunday.
After making three birdies in a row to close out his opening nine, he stood on the 10th tee with a two-shot lead over a reeling Cameron Young and Rory McIlroy.
It’s easy to say in hindsight but all Rose needed to do was shoot 36 on the second nine to finally put on his green jacket. Instead, everything went wrong, and it all happened so fast.
Uncertainty struck on the difficult 11th from the middle of the fairway. Rose backed off and hit an uncommitted approach far right of the green and made bogey. On 12, he duffed a chip from behind the green and added another bogey.
Looking to bounce back on the 13th, Rose powered a good look at eagle straight past the hole and failed to make the comebacker, resulting in a three-putt par.
Still with a chance to make something happen on the final two holes, Rose bottled the 17th.
“Nandina” has been his kryptonite in contention at Augusta.
This time, he missed a three-footer for par that ended the possibility of making birdie on the 18th to force McIlroy to par in to win.
Despite the success, Rose’s scar tissue at Augusta may be understated
I have a ton of great things that I will say about Rose but it does feel like the burden of winning the Masters may finally be too much for him to overcome at this point in his career.
This goes back 19 years.
In 2007, Rose shared the first-round lead. He remained within two shots going into the final round. But Rose opened with two doubles and a bogey in his first four holes to eject from the tournament … or so you would think. The Englishman relishes being the underdog and while everyone else fell apart, he made five birdies to get within one shot of the lead. Then he made another double on—you guessed it—the 17th hole.
Rose shared another first-round lead the following year before falling out of contention.
He contended more in the next decade but 2017 remains his biggest missed opportunity.
Staring at a short birdie putt on the 13th to take a three-shot lead over Sergio Garcia, Rose missed it, allowing the Spaniard to gain momentum. Garcia tied him with an eagle on the 15th but Rose responded with a birdie on the 16th for the lead. That meant the 17th was again approaching. Rose missed another short par putt to take the lead into the 72nd hole and lost in a playoff.
Four years later, Rose blitzed the field on Thursday with a 65 to take a four-shot lead. He failed to break par the rest of the week.
In 2025, Rose held all the momentum with an incredible Sunday charge to take the lead to the 17th. And, once again, he missed a short par putt to make bogey before eventually losing the playoff to McIlroy.
That’s a lot of scar tissue and time isn’t on his side to overcome it as McIlroy did.
Nobody deserves a green jacket more than Rose
My respect for Rose is immense.
He seemed like the ideal candidate to take a big paycheck from LIV Golf and switch tours. When it was starting up in 2022, Rose was on his way out of the top 50 in the world rankings and struggling with his game. Many of his veteran counterparts took the cash and have been uncompetitive since.
But Rose stayed put. He’s been clear that his only motivation now is legacy. In his mid-40s, Rose has kept himself in tip-top shape and he’s logged five top 10s in his last 12 major starts.
A few years ago, his distance was understandably falling off. Now, in 2026, Rose is above average in distance as one of the oldest players on the PGA Tour.
Rose is unique in this era with his longevity, durability and class.
He’s a showman on the course, always ready to interact with the crowds and entertain the viewers. With more and more mundane personalities in golf, Rose is the reminder that sport is entertainment, after all.
And while many players may have left fans feeling like legacies and the game’s history mean less than maximizing career earnings, Rose has been the opposite.
Like Weiskopf and Norman before him, Rose now seems likely to be the player of this era who never puts on the green jacket despite so many chances. It’s a heartbreaking reality.
Let’s hope Rose can stay in great shape while keeping his game sharp and, maybe, one coming April, the breaks will finally fall his way to etch his name into Masters immortality.
Top Photo Caption: Justin Rose came up just short at the Masters once again. (GETTY IMAGES/Hector Vivas)
