SAN DIEGO — While the field was futilely chasing Justin Rose in Sunday’s final round of the Farmers Insurance Open, Rose was chasing history.

With an all but insurmountable six-stroke lead coming into the final 18 holes, the only drama for spectators on another spectacular day at Torrey Pines Golf Course was whether Rose could set tournament records for scoring and margin of victory.

Rose shot a final-round 70, giving him a seven-shot victory over Pierceson Coody (65), Si Woo Kim (69) and Ryo Hisatsune (69) for the tournament’s first wire-to-wire win in 71 years. Rose’s four-day total of 265 was 23 under par, breaking the record of 22-under shared by Tiger Woods (1999) and George Burns (1987).

“I was keenly aware of it, actually,” Rose said of the scoring record. “It was the only thing I was focused on the last three holes. I don’t know if you know it, but yeah, I wasn’t exactly running the ball at the hole, you know. The last couple greens, they were kind of tricky downhillers. I know the line on those putts so they were kind of makeable in my head, but yeah, I was trying to get in the clubhouse at 23 or better.”

The margin of victory was one shy of the eight-stroke win Tiger Woods had over Ryuji Imada in the 2008 tournament.

Rose was all smiles as he approached the 18th green to cheers. He waved to the crowd and pumped his fist after putting out for par on the final hole.

“There’s danger lurking everywhere,” Rose said. “It’s the kind of golf course (where) you get in the rough, you start sort of compounding errors. You miss on the wrong side. Especially when the greens get firm like they were getting today, there were certain areas in our yardage book that we had as not a bad miss in the past. …

“This week, because the greens were getting firm, like the subtleties of the golf course really come out, and you can start making bogeys in a heartbeat. So in some ways it’s good if you’re leading because you can be patient, and obviously guys trying to chase end up making more mistakes because they’re pressing, so it’s an interesting one.”

The 45-year-old Englishman became the oldest player ever to win the Farmers. He is the oldest player to win a tour event by at least six shots since Sam Snead in 1961. Rose was the only player in his 40s to win on tour last season, a distinction he may claim again this year after his 13th tour victory.

“I take the pride out of it, that I’m doing something that’s not easy to do,” Rose said.

He wins a check for $1.72 million, a trophy featuring a Torrey pine and a surfboard he can put alongside the one he received for winning the 2019 Farmers Insurance Open, when he finished at 21 under. This victory made Rose the 10th multiple-time winner of the event.

Rose has had a notable pro career, though it took him more than a decade to start making his mark on the PGA Tour. He picked up a major by winning the 2013 U.S. Open and picked up a medal (gold) by winning the 2016 Olympics. He rose to No. 1 in the World Golf Ranking during the 2018 season and into 2019 when he won the Farmers for the first time.

A recommitment was needed after the coronavirus pandemic disrupted things in 2020, and Rose watched his ranking slip to 76th by the end of the 2022 season.

Rose’s thought at the time was: “I don’t want to just having been No. 1 in the world and just kind of drift into nowhere. … I don’t think I can work much harder. I think I just need to be patient with myself when the weeks slip by that aren’t great and just know that it’s still there.”

Rose said there was no chance of him getting “complacent” with a six-stroke lead entering the final round of the Farmers. He knows only too well that it can be overcome because he has done it himself. Rose came from seven strokes back in the final round of last year’s Masters to tie Rory McIlroy before losing in a playoff. Rose rallied from eight back in the final round of the 2017 HSBC Champions to beat Dustin Johnson.

No such drama was in store Sunday at Torrey Pines, where a week of spectacular weather was matched by Rose’s spectacular performance.

Not that guys weren’t trying to make a move in what Joel Dahmen termed “the B group.”

Dahmen, at six back, was the closest competitor to Rose when the day began. One PGA Tour radio broadcaster suggested that three birdies by Dahmen combined with three bogeys by Rose was all it would take to knot this thing up.

Sure, sure.

But Dahmen fell 10 shots off the lead after three bogeys and two birdies on the front nine. Dahmen (73) finished nine strokes back in a tie for seventh place.

Hisatsune, the third member of the final group, busted a move with four birdies on the front, but that merely moved him from eight to seven shots behind Rose.

Jake Knapp (67), who began the day 11 back, tied for fifth with Stephan Jaeger (68) after finishing with birdies on five of the last six holes.

With Rose way out in front, Knapp said, “You’re more focused on playing the golf course to the best of your ability and just seeing where that puts you. So, I mean, you go and look up there and you can get a bit discouraged when you’re still eight, nine, 10 back of the lead, so just try to go out there and take what the course gave me and just take the birdies when they came.”

Others going low included Sahith Theegala and Andrew Novak, who both shot 66. That simply moved them into a tie for seventh after starting the day 13 shots off the lead.

Coody had the low round of the day, with a 7-under 65 that included nine birdies. But Coody started 12 shots behind Rose.

Rose was content to bide his time early in the round, parring the first five holes. He turned it on with three birdies over the next four holes, including one at the par-3 eighth hole that got him to 23-under and another at the par-5 ninth hole when he canned a 35-foot putt that enabled him to make the turn at 24-under. Rose gave a shot back with a bogey at the par-4 12th, then enjoyed the walk in with pars over the final six holes.

Incredibly, Rose is the tournament’s first wire-to-wire winner since Tommy Bolt won the 1955 event, back when it was called the San Diego Open and played at Mission Valley Country Club. Bolt actually won the event wire-to-wire twice in three years, also earning a victory in 1953.

There could not be a bigger contrast between the two golfers.

Bolt’s nickname was “Terrible Tommy,” and he was known for throwing and breaking clubs as much as he was for hitting memorable shots with them.

Newspaper stories noted after Bolt’s 1955 win that “Tommy’s explosive temperament was in complete control. Not once did he throw a club or indicate in any way that he was irked — except for a few words with some overzealous cameramen the first day.”

About the most demonstrative Rose has been was when he kicked his bag at TPC Sawgrass and when he hit it with a club at the Genesis Scottish Open. The incidents were separated by a decade.

Then again, the setting at Torrey Pines makes it pretty difficult to be in a bad mood.

“This has always been one of my favorite tournaments to come to,” Rose said, “whether it just be the San Diego area, the Del Mar area, or the golf course itself. … The views are spectacular. It’s the kind of place you play on a day, on a week like this, you do stop to smell the roses. Sorry to throw that out.”

Exclusive club

Justin Rose is the 10th golfer to win the Farmers Insurance Open multiple times. Here’s a look at the list:

7 wins — Tiger Woods (2013, 2005-08, 2003, 1999)

3 wins — Phil Mickelson (2001, 2000, 1993)

2 wins — Tommy Bolt (1955, 1953)

2 wins — Arnold Palmer (1961, 1957)

2 wins — J.C. Snead (1975-76)

2 wins — Tom Watson (1980, 1977)

2 wins — Steve Pate (1992, 1988)

2 wins — Jason Day (2018, 2015)

2 wins — Brandt Snedeker (20)

2 wins — Justin Rose (2026, 2019)

In the money

A decade-by-decade look at the winner’s pursue over the Farmers Insurance Open’s 75-year history:

2026: Justin Rose — $1,728,000

2016: Brandt Snedeker — $1,170,000

2006: Tiger Woods — $918,000

1996: Davis Love III — $216,000

1986: Bob Tway — $81,000

1976: J.C. Snead — $36,000

1966: Billy Casper — $5,800

1956: Bob Rosberg — $2,400

1952: Ted Kroll — $2,000 (first year)

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