Justin Rose's Last Dance

Justin Rose was taking his time on Tuesday at Bethpage Black, signing autographs as he left each tee, posing for selfies with kids who kept calling out to him, begging for a few more seconds of his time.

Shane Lowry — his partner in a fourball match against Tommy Fleetwood and Rory McIlroy — seemed to grasp that Rose was going to be the last player to arrive at every tee, so he went ahead and hit first when they had honors, but no one was in much of a rush. They all signed pin flags and hats, chatted with friends and a few members of the media, but Rose was moving slower than most. It felt like a mixture of his meticulous prep, an approach that’s kept him competitive at age 45, and also an unspoken desire to savor some of these fleeting moments.  

You never know which Ryder Cup will be your last as a player.

This year will mark Rose’s seventh appearance. Will it be his final dance? It’s hard to say. It’s possible he could be back two years from now in Ireland. It wouldn't be unprecedented. But if Europe learned anything from 2021, it’s that you don’t want your Ryder Cup lions to stick around for one cycle too many. Ian Poulter, Lee Westwood, and Paul Casey were ferocious lions right up until the point when they suddenly became liabilities. Rose may be approaching that same inflection point.

If we’re being honest, he might be more valuable to the Europeans at Adare Manor as a captain instead of as a player.

It’s no secret that LIV Golf blew up the well-oiled machine Europe had built to pass the torch from one captain to the next. Poulter, Westwood, and Sergio Garcia were shoe-ins to take on the role at some point, but that seems (at best) in flux. It’s hard to imagine them getting tapped without, at minimum, some serious fence-mending.

Rose isn’t just the logical choice for Ireland. He may be the only choice.

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If Bethpage is his final appearance, it will mark the end of an era, but not the end of a streak. He has been a regular part of Europe’s stable since 2008, and was the team’s emotional heartbeat in Italy in 2023. But he’s also missed two cycles in that time, famously getting left off both the 2010 team at Celtic Manor and the 2021 squad at Whistling Straits.

If Rose does ascend to the captaincy in Ireland, what happened to him in 2010 will likely offer some valuable insight into how to pick a squad and how not to pick one. That year, despite winning The Memorial, he was passed over by captain Colin Montgomerie, and he got the call from Monty just minutes before his final round of the Barclays in the FedEx Cup Playoffs. It put Rose in such a bad headspace that he tumbled down the leaderboard and went from being tied with Matt Kuchar (who eventually won) to finishing 15th. It bugged him for years.

“It was awkward,” Rose said. “But the moral of the story is: Play your way onto the team.”

If Rose plays his way onto the team in 2027, it might create an awkward situation for Europe. Edoardo Molinari has stated he has no interest in the role, that he likes being the man behind the scenes. But if Rose is ready to step up, he would likely be the one person equipped to handle the pressure, and the difficult conversations, the role asks of its aging lions.