After starting the week outside the top 30 in the FedExCup standings, Rose will be among those playing for the $10 million bonus in Atlanta after claiming a nervy wire-to-wire victory at a rainy Cog Hill Golf and Country Club with a winning total of 13-under 271.
“The manner in which I won this tournament, it rates as high as the best tournament I’ve ever won, just by going wire-to-wire,” Rose told reporters.
Australian John Senden returned an error-free two-under 69 to finish second but it was not enough to overhaul Rose or clinch a place on the International squad for the Presidents Cup in November.
That honor went to compatriot Geoff Ogilvy who returned a 69 to finish one shot back alone in third to claim a place at the Tour Championship and a Presidents Cup berth.
World No. 1 Luke Donald signed off with a three-under 68 to take fourth and to cap a brilliant comeback after an opening round 75 on Thursday had left the Englishman near the bottom of the leaderboard.
FedExCup leader Webb Simpson was one shot further adrift in fifth after a final round 71.
Arriving at Cog Hill saying it was do-or-die, Rose turned a red-hot putter and some daring shot-making into his third career PGA Tour win and his first of the season.
Rose banked $1.4 million for the victory and suddenly finds himself as one of the favorites to collect the $10 million season-ending jackpot after moving into the top five of the standings.
Only the top five head to Atlanta knowing a win at East Lake will give them the season-ending jackpot.
“To move to three on the FedExCup list and give myself control of my own destiny next week in Atlanta is something I didn’t foresee at the beginning part of the week,” said Rose. “I played some amazing golf at times and today was just a pretty gritty kind of round.”
Rose began the rainy final day with a four-shot cushion but saw his lead clipped to three with a bogey at the second.
With no one behind him mounting a charge, Rose held steady and then increased his advantage to five with back-to-back birdies at six and seven.
But after opening with eight straight pars, Senden finally applied some pressure when his birdie at nine combined with a Rose bogey on the same hole, slicing the Briton’s lead to three entering the turn.
Senden added another birdie at 10 and then watched as Rose wobbled down the stretch taking a bogey at 16 reducing his lead to a single shot to set up a nail-biting finish.
But Rose quickly ended the suspense when he chipped in from just off the fringe of the 17th green for a birdie to grab a two-shot advantage heading onto the final hole.
“John Senden was just a rock out there, bogey free round, that was awesome. But I knew it was kind of coming down to me. Either I was going to fritter it away or make something happen to win the tournament. That’s how it felt,” said Rose.
“I kind of said to myself … these are the moments where tournaments are won.”
The squads for the Presidents Cup also took shape with 10-of-12 spots on both the US and International teams set after the BMW.
US captain Fred Couples and his opposite number Greg Norman will complete the teams when they announce their two captain’s picks on Sept. 27.
At 16, Lexi Thompson has become the youngest player to win an LPGA Tour event.
The Floridian closed with a 2-under 70 on Sunday to win by five strokes at the Navistar LPGA Classic in Pratville, Alabama over Tiffany Joh.
Thompson shattered the age record for winning a multiple-round tournament held by Paula Creamer, who won in 2005 at 18. Marlene Hagge was 18 years and 14 days old when she won the single-round Sarasota Open in 1952.
Thompson, who turned 16 in February, led by five strokes entering the final round and built that to seven through 10 holes at the Robert Trent Jones Trail’s Capitol Hill complex. Then came the teen’s only big lapse on the pressure-packed day when she bogeyed the next two holes while Joh surged to within three strokes.
Thompson erased any concerns of a collapse with birdies on Nos. 16 and 17.
