As the reigning Olympic champion, Justin Rose has a lot of bragging rights. He displayed that on Sunday during the final round of The Barclays when he whipped his gold medal out of his bag on the 18th green and had his caddie put it around his neck as he putted out.
It was a move Phil Mickelson clearly loved and the crowd at Bethpage Black delighted in as Rose finished out at even par for the week. In fact, the idea was actually that of Mickelson's caddie Jim "Bones" Mackay.
It's always fun to watch guys who actually seem to enjoy being multimillionaires and traveling the world to play golf. Rose is definitely one of those guys, and the gold medal was a sweet touch for the New York crowd.
"[It's] much easier to travel with than a normal trophy," said Rose earlier in the week. "You can just kind of slip it in your pocket and then carry on. It is traveling with me, yeah, so it's around. Everyone wants to feel the weight of it and that's the unique thing. That's what's curious about it. Everyone wants to see, 'Oh, how heavy is it?' That's been the reaction: 'Oh, it's heavy, isn't it.' That's kind of been the unique thing about the medal versus a trophy. You can drink out of the Claret Jug and I guess the Olympic Gold would be a nice coaster for the glass of wine."
Justin Rose brings out the gold.#QuickHitshttps://t.co/V0QmNhAt2X
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 28, 2016
Apparently Bones' idea to have Rose wear the medal. JR: "He said, dude if you have a 1-footer, slip it on your neck. People will love it."
— Will Gray (@WillGrayGC) August 28, 2016