Stray Shots: Defying gravity and ratings

The new world No. 3 keeps redefining his HoF résumé; Tour numbers soar

Justin Rose knocked out the field with his record score at Torrey Pines (Ken Murray/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

The picture above is a dead giveaway, but play along anyway.

Name that player.

He was born in South Africa but doesn’t hail as South African. He nearly won his first major start as a 17-year-old amateur. He missed the first 21 cuts of his pro career and struggled to retain a tour card.

He found his footing but flamed out of the top 100 after coming to America. Found his footing again in Europe and won an Order of Merit.

Figured out how to win on the PGA Tour and picked up a major, an Olympic gold medal and a FedEx Cup along the way. He rose to world No. 1 five times in his late 30s, passing the title around with two younger guys who eventually went to LIV Golf. He didn’t follow them for a golden parachute even though his game got away from him again as he went winless for four years and plummeted to No. 84 before his first start in 2023.

Found his form again in his 40s, winning again, posting two of his five career major runner-ups and notching two more Ryder Cup pelts to the three he already had.

Last week, he won for the 13th time on the PGA Tour, second only to Rory McIlroy’s 29 in the ranks of European players.

He, of course, is Justin Rose. You knew that but it never hurts to be reminded of his remarkable journey. Now at age 45, his ball speed has climbed 5 mph in the last year to more than 180 and he’s risen to No. 3 in the world behind Scottie Scheffler, 29, and McIlroy, 35.

Rose’s game may not have the sizzle of Scheffler, McIlroy or Bryson DeChambeau, yet he remains a force to be reckoned with, as the Americans learned all too well at Bethpage Black last fall and all the younger guys on the PGA Tour realized when he boat-raced them off of Torrey Pines with a wire-to-wire seven-shot victory that eclipsed the tournament scoring record.

Rose’s game is so good at an age when most pros are eying the senior tour or big parting PIF gift from LIV Golf that he’s taking a pass on being the European Ryder Cup captain in 2027 (when he’ll be 47) because he intends to make the team for the eighth time as a player. That’s why he travels with his own “recovery vehicle” designed for on-site, post-round rejuvenation that’s equipped with a sauna, cold/hot plunge pools, steam shower and spin bike.

Rose is far from done. He wants more victories, another major and no ambiguity that he’ll leave the game eventually as a World Golf Hall of Famer.

Stray Shots …

1. TV ratings: The PGA Tour’s numbers are on the rise.

In spite of Rose’s runaway victory that lacked any real drama, the Farmers Insurance Open continued the upward trend. Golf Channel reported its broadcast saw an 102-percent increase in viewers from the previous year’s Farmers Insurance Open. Brooks Koepka making his PGA Tour return surely helped the surge in ratings, with every round seeing at least a 75-percent increase over 2025 to make it the most watched Farmers since Tiger Woods’ last appearance in 2020.

The prior week’s American Express, where Scottie Scheffler pulled away, drew a 125 increase in four-day total viewership from a year ago, according to Josh Carpenter with Sports Business Journal. The Amex third round had 883,000 viewers on average throughout Golf Channel’s coverage — up a whopping 284 percent from the 2025 American Express and the event’s highest-rated third round since 2006. Sunday’s final round — which played opposite the NFL conference championships — saw a 127 percent increase in ratings, drawing 617,000 average viewers, while the NFL reported its least-watched championship Sunday since 2021, according to Sports Business Journal.

2. TGL funk: Does the “T” in TGL stand for toothless? Because it certainly is without Tiger Woods.

Reported viewership of the Jan. 26 match between Rory McIlroy’s Boston Common vs. Shane Lowry’s The Bay GC was the lowest viewership of Season 2 so far. It drew only 333,000 average viewers — about half of the Season 2 opener.

On the other hand, when Tiger’s Jupiter Links team plays — even though Tiger doesn’t play with them and only serves as a mascot — people watch. In week 4, Jupe’s match on ESPN drew almost 800,000 viewers. This bolsters the view that Tiger still moves the needle in golf, if not still actually being the needle.

That viewership compares with average TGL viewership through the end of January of 550,000, down almost a third from 2025’s inaugural season.

While it’s a trifle disappointing not to see TGL gaining mojo and interest, on the other hand these are still excellent numbers for ESPN, compared to their other product offerings.

As Essentially Sport’s Abhijit Raj perspicaciously observes: “Woods plays, numbers hold. Woods sits, they crater.”

3. Finding ‘it:’ It’s interesting — and encouraging — that the PGA Tour seems to be improving viewership even without a Tiger-like attraction in the mix. Ratings were up in 2025 and after a slow start to 2026 the Amex and Farmers hopefully portend a favorable rise for this year.

That noted, the somewhat charisma-challenged Scheffler does not fill the Tiger void as a dashing headliner, DeChambeau only visits at majors and McIlroy is the closest golf gets to a bona fide movie star who people will tune in to watch on the regular.

From whence will the next generational talent emerge with swagger and the “it” factor to go along with a great game?