Justin Rose walked into the final round of the Tour Championship carrying momentum from his 2026 season, highlighted by a dominant seven-shot win at the Farmers Insurance Open, his 13th PGA Tour title. Six shots off the pace set by co-leaders Scottie Scheffler and Viktor Hovland, Rose needed something to shake up his Sunday at East Lake. He got it, almost at the perfect moment, on the ninth hole. Anyone who saw it won’t forget it anytime soon.

The PGA Tour’s official account on X celebrated the moment: “SLAM DUNK ACE @JustinRose99 makes a hole-in-one at the 9th, the hardest hole on the course @TOURChamp!”

Rose’s week started slowly. He posted rounds of 68, 65, and 69 to sit at seven under entering the final round, and Sunday started no better. He made two front-nine bogeys, leaving him two over through eight holes before reaching the ninth tee.

The par-3 ninth, a 208-yard hole that plays uphill over water , had been the toughest test at East Lake all week, producing an average score of 0.077 over par and only three birdies. That changed when Rose pulled a six-iron. He struck the shot at 141 mph off the clubface with a 128-foot apex, and it flew straight into the cup for a hole-in-one. It was the first ace on the hole at the Tour Championship since Xander Schauffele‘s in 2019.

The reaction from Rose and the grandstands was electric. He threw both arms into the air, held the pose for several seconds, then pointed down to mimic a slam dunk. He high-fived his playing partner, Si Woo Kim, and Kim’s caddie, Manny Villegas, as the crowd around the ninth erupted.

The moment came just after Scottie Scheffler had narrowly missed his own ace. On the par-3 second, the world number one, already trailing the leaders and needing to make up ground fast, watched his tee shot track the pin the entire way and land softly inches from the cup. It was close enough to send the gallery and broadcast team into a frenzy, but it stayed out, and Scheffler had to settle for a tap-in birdie.

The hole-in-one wiped out Rose’s earlier mistakes on the course, turning an otherwise rocky round into an even-par 35, and pushing him to eight under for the tournament at the time of writing. It marked the fourth hole-in-one of his PGA Tour career, following his ace at the 2016 Rio Olympics and an albatross during a TGL round earlier this year.

Rose’s Incredible Ace Leaves East Lake in Awe

Clips of the ace spread quickly across social media, drawing a wave of reaction from golf fans and casual viewers alike. “Are you kidding me?” one fan wrote. Another said, “Just watched this live. Genuinely thought he dunked it in the water, but nope, straight in the hole. Awesome stuff, Rosey!”

Beyond the reaction, the shot carried real weight on the leaderboard. Rose entered the week ranked 27th in the FedEx Cup standings, making the tournament a fight just to stay relevant among the 29-man field. With this shot, he made his position clearer.

“Unreal 👏👏👏,” one fan wrote. Trackman data from the broadcast confirmed the shot’s numbers: 141 mph off the clubface with a 128-foot apex before it dropped straight into the hole. To many watching, it looked as though the ball had a mind of its own.

Another fan summed up the disbelief: “A hole-in-one on the hardest hole?! 😳🔥 That’s absolutely unreal from Justin Rose! 🏌️‍♂️⛳️” The hole’s reputation as the week’s toughest challenge only deepened the confusion among fans watching from the gallery.

“What a shot by Rose,” another fan added, capturing the reaction that spread quickly across the golf world on Sunday afternoon.

At 46, Rose remains one of the oldest players still competing at the top of the sport, and Sunday’s ace did more than entertain: it kept his push up the FedEx Cup standings alive, giving East Lake a highlight that outshone the leaderboard battle above him.