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Justin Rose Aces East Lake Ninth, Si Woo Kim Answers With Eagle

By Bush Staff·2 min read
Justin Rose Aces East Lake Ninth, Si Woo Kim Answers With Eagle
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Justin Rose slam-dunked a 208-yard ace at East Lake's brutal par-3 ninth, and playing partner Si Woo Kim reportedly answered right back with a hole-out eagle.

Justin Rose has been chasing his career slightly quieter than his 2013 U.S. Open self for a while now, but for one swing on Sunday at the Tour Championship, he looked like the guy who used to own major leaderboards. On the par-3 ninth at East Lake, the 46-year-old ripped a 6-iron from 208 yards that tracked the flag the whole way and dropped for a hole-in-one, the 4th ace of his career.

Fore Play
Fore Play
@ForePlayPod

JUSTIN ROSE HOOPS IT FOR THE ACE!!!!!

Golf coverage on CBS shows a golf ball's shadow near a flagstick on a green beside a lake, with a leaderboard showing Scheffler, Hovland, Aberg, Scott, Gerard, Young, and Rose; a separate shot shows Justin Rose walking off a green at -8 through his caddie and gallery.

The reaction wasn't subtle. Rose threw both arms up and mimicked a basketball slam dunk, which is exactly the read Fore Play and Barstool Sports gave it online — the "slam dunk ace" framing wasn't hyperbole, it was Rose's own celebration. That ninth hole had been one of the toughest at East Lake all week, and per ESPN, it had produced just 3 birdies against 88 pars, 11 bogeys and a double bogey before Rose's tee shot found the bottom of the cup. The last player to ace that hole on Tour was Xander Schauffele, back in the third round of the 2019 Tour Championship.

Rose had opened the back nine 2-over before the ace pulled him back to even par for the round and 8-under for the week — a number that shows up right on the CBS leaderboard graphic in the clips above. He'd go on to finish tied for 13th, 6 shots behind co-leaders Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland, so the ace wasn't a leaderboard-mover. It was pure theater, and Rose's group made sure it didn't stop there.

Rose's playing partner was Si Woo Kim, and according to Fore Play's live look at the group, Kim followed the ace with a hole-out eagle of his own on the very next chance. Whether that's the tightest sequence East Lake has seen all week or not, it turned one group's stretch of holes into the moment of the tournament.

Fore Play
Fore Play
@ForePlayPod

THIS GROUP CAN’T MISS. SI WOO HOLE OUT EAGLE RIGHT AFTER ROSEY’S ACE!!!

Two golfers walk down a fairway toward a small white golf ball in the grass, then a player in a blue polo crouches to mark his ball on the green as his caddie stands behind him with the bag; an on-screen leaderboard shows Scheffler, Hovland, Young, Scott, Gerard, Aberg, and S.W. Kim.

None of it changed who's actually contending for the FedEx Cup at the top of the board, but that's not really the point of a Sunday ace at East Lake. Rose high-fived Kim and Kim's caddie right after the ball dropped, and for a few minutes the back nine at the Tour Championship was about a 46-year-old having the kind of luck that makes grown pros act like kids again.

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