Justin Rose shot 1-over par and beat Phil Mickelson and Jason Day by two strokes to win the 2013 US Open at Merion Golf Club on Sunday for his first career major.
After making a putt on the 18th hole to solidify his final round score of 70, the Englishman pointed to the sky and became emotional as he was thinking of his late father. Rose’s father, Ken, died of cancer in 2002 at the age of 57. He was a big influence on his son’s golf career and even served as his caddie at times.
Rose has won five times on both the PGA and European Tour. He dedicated his first career victory — a win at the Dunhill Championship in South Africa — to his father, who was ill at the time.
“My dad’s not so well and he is the guy I owe most to,” Rose said at the time, via Golf Today.
“He’s put a lot of time, a lot of hours into my game. This win is for him more than anybody.”
Rose said after winning the US Open that he had his father in mind upon winning on Father’s Day.
“It wasn’t lost on me that today is Father’s Day,” Rose told NBC’s Bob Costas. “A lot of us come from great men and we have that responsibility to our children to show them what a great man can be, and that was my goal today — to carry myself in a way that I could be proud when I came off the golf course.
“For it all to work out for me on such an emotional day, I just couldn’t help but to look up to the heavens and think that my old dad Ken had something to do with it.”
Rose also gave special recognition to Mickelson, the runner-up, for attending his daughter’s graduation the night before the first round of the tournament.
