Justin Rose shares his opinion on J.J Spaun as a golfer after beating him in a playoff to win the FedEx St Jude

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Justin Rose is the FedEx St Jude champion for 2025 and the Englishman has had some words for his opponent, J.J. Spaun after beating him in a playoff.

With both Rose and Spaun losing in playoffs in 2025 to Rory McIlroy, there was always going to be one winner to banish those demons and on this occasion, it was Rose.

The Englishman landed six birdies in his final eight holes to haul in Tommy Fleetwood and Scottie Scheffler, before he and Spaun finished at -16 to go to a playoff.

Over three playoff holes, Rose and Spaun battled it out before the English star finally made a 12 footer which Spaun was unable to follow in to seal the deal.

For Rose, it was very much a deserved win in what has been a fine year on the PGA Tour for him.

However, as expected, he remained classy in victory and had some kind words towards his American opponent.

Justin Rose gives verdict on J.J. Spaun after the FedEx St Jude Championship

It really was nail-biting stuff at TPC Southwind.

Rose and Spaun were going at it hammer and tongue, with neither looking like they were going to miss until Rose piled the pressure on during the third playoff hole.

Nevertheless, while Rose got his win and was delighted, he was still able to find time to praise Spaun as he assessed his final round.

“Yeah, so I’ve never really played that hole the way I played it today. Never hit driver off that hole. I’ve never been able to cover the left side. For some reason I’ve been hitting it quite far this week and the wind was just perfect. It was down from the right-hand side, and it meant I could just cover the left-hand side. I felt like it was playing perfect for me today with the driver. If I held the driver up a little bit, I probably wasn’t going to run out, and if I turned the driver over, I was going to make the carry, which obviously that angle that I was able to create to the back left pin was very advantageous,” Rose admitted.

“Then obviously they changed the pin to the back right. That sort of advantage was negated a little bit. But funny enough when they changed the pin was when I won the first time around on that pin placement.

“But the pin placement for the third time around in the playoff was sort of similar to day one or day two, I can’t quite remember, but I had a putt in that back section of green that I had underread, and I actually walked over to exactly where, you could see the old cup mark, so I tried to get a feel for that part of the green and then the part of the green that I was actually putting on in the playoff, and that was definitely helpful, and holed a really good slippery left-to-right putt there.”

Admitting the change in hole location played into his hands, Rose then suggested Spaun is just someone who doesn’t make errors.

“I was able to sort of, I guess, changing it played into my hands eventually. But J.J. is obviously such a great player. You’re never waiting for him to make a mistake. He’s so solid off the tee. But he obviously had to fit a 3-wood into probably the tighter bit of fairway, so probably a harder tee shot for J.J., especially being a left-to-right player. But I’m glad it worked out in the end.”

• READ MORE: ‘Disappointed’ Tommy Fleetwood says his first words after failing to win again at the FedEx St. Jude Championship

Justin Rose proves he is the man for Team Europe

There was a point this year where it looked like an argument could be made for Justin Rose to be one of those players in the Ryder Cup squad who needed replacing.

However, after a brilliant 2025 and nearly winning The Masters, it’s safe to say Rose will be on the plane.

Not only that, he will be vitally important for Luke Donald, both in terms of experience and more importantly, his actual form.

Right now, few players on Team Europe are in better form than Rose and come the intense atmosphere expected at Bethpage Black, Rose might well end up being Europe’s key man.