Had Justin Rose been offered the opportunity to pick the day for his first major championship triumph, he would not have looked beyond 16 June at Merion. This was Father's Day. After holing the putt which won the US Open, ending a 43-year English wait for success at the tournament, Rose kissed his golf ball before looking and pointing skywards. It was the enduring image of the golfing year.
Rose's father Ken had succumbed to cancer 11 years earlier when the player was in the early stages of his professional career, and he was understandably devastated by the loss of his mentor. Unlike Rory McIlroy or Graeme McDowell, Rose could not hug his dad on the 72nd US Open green. Instead, he offered his poignant gesture.
"I phoned my mum after my round and we both were in floods of tears speaking to each other; she misses my dad immensely," Rose said. "I miss him immensely. And I thought it was just a fitting time in which I could honour him by looking up. I felt like I sort of put into practice a lot of the lessons that he taught me and I felt like I conducted myself in a way that he would be proud of, win or lose. And that's what it was about for me in a lot of ways, as well."
With Rose going into the final round two shots behind the overnight leader, Phil Mickelson, and tied for fifth, his coach, Sean Foley, had texted on the last morning, telling Rose to "go out there and be the man that your dad taught you to be and that your kids can look up to".
And so it proved. In the culmination of a major on a brutally tough course, which soon regressed into a war of attrition, Rose displayed magnificent nerve to hold off Jason Day and Mickelson by two shots. Mickelson, the home favourite, came up short in the US Open for the sixth time in his career. Rose hit a wonderful four-iron approach to the 18th on Sunday, played just four paces away from where Ben Hogan hit one of the game's most iconic shots en route to winning the 1950 US Open.
For Rose, who struggled after moving into the professional ranks, a journey of sorts was complete. "I think my dad always believed that I was capable of this," he said. "When he was close to passing away, he told my mum, 'don't worry, Justin will be OK. He'll know what to do'. He kind of believed in me to be my own man. And I think that I took a lot of confidence from that.
"It was a pretty traumatic start to my pro career. I've never really talked about it because you don't want to admit to that being the case, but I think when you've got past something you can talk openly about it.
"I guess everybody was emotional. I sensed people who had known me for a long time, they all felt for me as well, in a good way. I had been full circle, been through it all with my dad. My dad had seen me struggle but fortunately he has also seen me win on tour as a pro. What I'm most grateful for about winning the US Open is just how connected I felt to my dad."
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