Justin Rose is doing it again.
The #5 ranked player in the world is officially joining McLaren Golf as its first global brand ambassador and will reportedly sport McLaren’s new product line at this weekend’s PGA TOUR stop in Doral.
McLaren is planning an official product launch this Wednesday, coinciding with the opening festivities for this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix. A company press release calls it a “symbolic convergence of McLaren’s worlds of racing and golf.”
McLaren announced last month that he was getting into the golf business. Rose, whose previous deal with Honma ended shortly after the start, is long-time friends with McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown and is a regular playing partner with McLaren Formula 1 driver and reigning world champion Lando Norris.
McLaren says Rose will also be an investor in the new company.
Rose and McLaren: Two years in the making
The company says Rose has worked with McLaren’s engineering and development team for nearly two years. He worked on branding and product development and served as general counsel.
The 45-year-old Rose is playing some of the best golf of his career. After winning at Torry Pines in January, Rose led the back nine at Augusta before securing a top-three finish. He currently leads the PGA Tour in Greens in Regulation and is in the Top 10 in Strokes Gained: Approach.
If you watch Doral this weekend, you certainly won’t miss McLaren’s name. Rose’s casket will carry a McLaren-branded staff bag in the company’s iconic papaya colour. He will also have the McLaren logo on his golf shirts.
We’re not quite sure what to make of this, but even though the press release we received this morning says Rose will be sporting McLaren gear at Doral, we couldn’t find a McLaren driver on the USGA/R&A compliant list. We’ll see how it plays out.
McLaren is going full golf
When news that McLaren was getting into the golf equipment game broke last month, rumors naturally followed. One suggested that a pair of well-known PGA Tour pros had already signed with the brand. Rose News says at least half of those rumors were true.
Another rumor is that former Titleist designer JP Harrington would also be part of the McLaren team. He shared McLaren’s Instagram post last month with the caption, “The next chapter.” Additionally, at least one former TaylorMade employee was rumored to be involved with McLaren. This has also proven true, as today’s press release comes courtesy of former TaylorMade Marketing Director Ryan Lauder, who is now Chief Marketing Officer at McLaren Golf.
Rose’s complicated relationship with his equipment
Rose’s history with the devices is nothing if not unconventional. He has been a free agent without a formal endorsement deal since early 2020 after a short-lived partnership with Honma. After ending his 20-year relationship with TaylorMade, Rose became the first employee of the Honma PGA TOUR in January of 2019. He served as the centerpiece of one of the brand’s many efforts to crack the North American market. The relationship started with a bang, as Rose won the Farmer’s in his second start in Honma gear.
However, things quickly went south. The deal ended less than a year and a half later, when Rose ditched his Honma Honda Classic driver in favor of a TaylorMade SIM. The following week at Bay Hill Rose ditched all of his Honma clubs, instead playing a mixed bag of TaylorMade, COBRA and Titleist gear.
This event effectively marked the end of the Honma-Rose relationship, with both parties publicly stating that the deal ended “amicably”.
Rose later explained that extensive tournament testing was mentally exhausting and that he preferred to work with setups he trusted.
That’s the part that makes this Rose-McLaren deal so interesting. The concern is that Rose may be putting herself in a similar situation as she did with Honma. However, the fact that Rose has been a free agent for so long and has reportedly been working with the McLaren team for the past two years on product development puts the relationship in a slightly different light.
