The big story of the weekend might have been Rory McIlroy beating Justin Rose to win his first ever Masters trophy and green jacket but it’s also worth noting these are two players gunning for the European Ryder Cup team.
McIlroy is a certainty to be in the team and will need the mother of all disasters or even injury to see him drop out. Even then, you’d imagine he’ll be involved somehow.
Rose, meanwhile, is one of the players on the periphery of things and after being a captain’s pick for Luke Donald last time in Rome, he will be hoping to have some credit in the bank still.
Of course, Rose also knows he needs to play well and accumulate enough points to take it out of Donald’s hands if possible.
And with the latest European Ryder Cup standings in, it looks like Rose has done just that for now.
European Ryder Cup standings update after Rose v McIlory at The Masters
With Rory McIlroy leading the charge for Europe at the top of the pile, the rest of the field is more tight knit and as it stands, a number of players could muscle themselves into the other five automatic spots.
As for Justin Rose, well, his solid performance at Augusta National has put him right in the mix and he’s now fourth in the standings, behind only McIlroy, Tyrrell Hatton and Rasmus Hojgaard.
With Ludvig Aberg also playing well in The Masters again, the Swede is also now in the top six, moving ahead of Tommy Fleetwood for that final auto place.
The story though, is Justin Rose. And in fairness to him, his climb is no fluke.
Justin Rose’s 2025 results as he bids for Ryder Cup spot
With Rose playing well at Augusta, some might feel it was a bit of a one off and out of nowhere.
But the reality is that Rose has been trending well all season. He finished third at the AT&T at Pebble Beach, and while he missed the cut at The Genesis, he then managed a tie for 8th at the Arnold Palmer.
Again, The Players saw him miss the cut and he didn’t pull up any trees at the Valero either.
But with three top tens now this season and all in good size events, it does look like Justin Rose is somewhere near his best again.
Indeed, if he continues at this rate, he’ll not need the captain’s pick from Donald this time.
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