Cecilia Ferrara
June 30, 2014
Sports Writer
Sports Insider
Photos: Matailong Du/DC Spotlight Newspaper
On Sunday, Justin Rose joined Tiger Woods as a two-time winner of the Quicken Loans National golf tournament. He did so in dramatic fashion, edging out Shawn Stefani in a one-hole playoff. Both players shot one under par during the final rounds at Congressional, which forced the extra hole. Stefani shot first and struggled, hitting a double-bogey six that landed in the water. Rose sealed the victory with a two-putt for par. It was his first PGA victory since winning the U.S. Open last year.
While it wasn’t an easy win for Rose, who bogeyed on the final hole before the playoff, he was appreciative of the tough course afterwards.
“This week you’re going to miss greens,” he said. “You’re going to be challenged. You’re going to have to grind, and you’re going to have to do everything at some point this week, and that’s the type of golf that I like, that tests all your skill sets.”
Stefani finished as the sole runner-up, while Charley Hoffman and Ben Martin tied for third. Andres Romero, Brendan Steele, and Brendon Todd finished at two under in a three-way tie for fifth. Woods shot 4 over par 75 and missed the final cut.
Though he was not in contention on the final day, Woods remained positive about his first professional appearance since back surgery.
“I hate to say it, but I’m really encouraged by what happened this week,” he said. “I missed the cut by four shots. That’s a lot. But the fact that what I was able to do physically and the speed I had and distance that I was hitting the golf ball again, I had not done that in a very long time. And to recover like I did overnight, still leery about it, how am I going to recover?”
Woods is anticipated to play at the Open Championship July 17-20th and no doubt hopes to be in improved form by then. Rose wasn’t the only winner at the Quicken Loans National. During the tournament’s third round, Peter Hanson hit a hole-in-one on No. 2, the first ace on that hole in the tournament’s eight-year history. His ace awarded Fayetteville, GA resident Arline Deacon free mortgage payments for a year by Quicken Loans, the prize by the new tournament sponsor.
As the official mortgage sponsor of the PGA Tour, they have implemented a contest where they will award a year’s worth of mortgage payments to a randomly selected entrant for every ace on PGA Tour events for the balance of 2014.
Quicken Loans will also award one lucky fan $1 million when a golfer records a hole-in-one on the 10th hole at Congressional.
World Cup
Though they lost to Germany 0-1 last Thursday, Team USA still advanced to the Round of 16.
They are now preparing to face Belgium on Tuesday. The match-up will be a true test for the U.S., as Belgium is the toughest team they have faced so far during this World Cup. They have only conceded one goal in three games, the sole goal coming on a penalty. If the U.S. loses, they will be eliminated.
“We want to obviously do well for ourselves, for our country,” U.S. defender DeMarcus Beasley said. “But it’s a big step for the growth of soccer if we get past Belgium.”
