After his impressive T2 showing at the 2018 Open Championship a few weeks ago, Justin Rose has withdrawn from this week's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational ahead of next week's PGA Championship. Rose cited back spasms as the reasoning for his removal from the field. 

The No. 2 player in the world really struggled with his back in 2016 when he took two different stints off to rest. Rose was one of the favorites coming into this week's event, as he's had five top 10s at the Bridgestone Invitational and has 18 (!) top 10s in his last 23 events worldwide.

Maybe the most impressive of those top 10s was his 64-69 weekend that nearly resulted in the second major championship victory of his career at Carnoustie. Rose made the cut on the number on Friday and mounted a heroic charge over the final 36 holes before ultimately falling two strokes short of Francesco Molinari's 276 total.

Rose plans to play in next week's PGA Championship at Bellerive where he will again be one of the favorites. Rose has three top 10s at the PGA Championship in his career but missed the cut last year at Quail Hollow. This will certainly be an intriguing storyline with Bellerive, the FedEx Cup Playoffs and the Ryder Cup coming up and the No. 2 player in the world possibly a bit of a question mark for them all.

In addition to Rose withdrawing from the WGC-Bridgestone field on Wednesday, Adam Hadwin pulled out of the event as well, reducing the field to 71 golfers.