Justin Rose won two trophies from the Farmers Insurance Open. One was the bronze of a Torrey pine that he carried with him on the flight home to London. The other is a surfboard he posed next to after his seven-shot victory.
Rose didn’t recall getting the surfboard from when he won at Torrey Pines in 2019. The Century Club of San Diego was more than happy to send him both, except that Rose had a favor. He wanted one of them to go his caddie, Mark “Fooch” Fulcher.
Sunday’s victory was meaningful to Rose beyond breaking the tournament’s scoring record most recently held by Tiger Woods. He had his longtime looper at his side, and that wasn’t the case when he won seven years ago.
Fulcher was home in England recovering from heart surgery in 2019. Rose used Gareth Lord, a longtime caddie who was on the bag for Henrik Stenson during his record win at Royal Troon.
“I think that win was always a tough one for Fooch, not fighting for his life but he was in a pretty bad way in the hospital,” Rose said. “And seeing us kind of cruise to victory and hugging Lordie on the 18th green, (he) nearly had to have another procedure after that, I think.”
Even with a seven-shot lead, Rose didn’t begin to celebrate until his wedge safely cleared the pond on the 18th green. He exchanged happy words with Fulcher and meant to speak into the camera, but there were so many on him that he wasn’t sure where to look. No one heard what he said.
“I think we were just trying to have a little bit of banter and make light of the fact, ‘Hey, Lordie, I hope you’re watching because now it’s Fooch’s turn to be walking down the 18th with me here at Torrey,’” Rose said. “That was fun to enjoy that with him.”
Fulcher returned to work for Rose at the Masters in 2019 after the heart surgery, but it was slow going and they parted about a month later. Rose brought him back in time for the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone in Italy and they’ve been together ever since, a total of some 14 years.
The Century Club was happy to send Fulcher his own surfboard, along with the two now won by Rose. But Rose had another request — just one surfboard for him was enough, with the years “2019” and “2026” on it.