Justin Rose explains his move to McLaren Golf: ‘I’ve learned so much’

As he eyes his 46th birthday this summer, Justin Rose is the oldest player in the Official World Golf Ranking’s Top 50 – and that experience is not lost on him.

In fact, his past experience is part of why he feels this way comfortable becoming an investor IN McLaren Golfnew F1 venture and Supercar juggernaut.

Rose was announced as the company’s first global ambassador on Monday at this week’s Cadillac Championship in Miami. At a pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday, he was asked about the new partnership, with the brand set to officially unveil its new clubs at an event on Wednesday.

“McLaren Golf has been something that has been on the back burner for a large number of months,” Rose said Tuesday at his pre-tournament press conference, his first comments since the announcement. “Obviously launching a brand off the pitch has obviously been going on for a lot longer than a year. It’s something I’ve been involved with from the beginning, really helping the engineering team, really testing the first editions of the club. So yeah, I’ve been working on the project for over a year, probably.”

Rose himself brought his past experience with changing equipment. After spending the first 20 years of his career with TaylorMade Golf, he shocked the golf world when, at the start of the 2019 season and as the No. 1 of the world in power, he left the company to sign with Honma.

Although Rose won early that season at Torrey Pines — as he has this year — the partnership quickly soured and all Honma clubs were out of his bag at the start of 2020. Both the parties walked away from the deal shortly thereafter.

Since then, Rose has been a non-geared agent and one that often switches from using lead bar in his driver shaft to using a set of split brand irons or playing seven year old fairway woods.

On Tuesday, Rose was asked if that freedom was worth taking away given how well he has played recently, winning twice on the PGA Tour since last August and finishing in the top-3 at the last two Masters.

Without being directly asked about it, Rose brought up the 2019 situation with Honma.

“From my perspective, no, I’m actually looking at what could be better. I’m looking to mitigate the risk,” Rose said. “Yeah, I’ve done it once before in 2019, obviously, and I’ve learned a lot from that process. So I feel a little bit better now about going down this road.

“I think so, I think there are some best practices that we’re kind of, we’ve kind of put in place in development that I think are giving me what I think are a fantastic set of golf clubs. I’m looking at some of the performance data that I’m getting at the range and places like that and going over what I have.”

The main differences between 2019 and now are that Rose isn’t signing with an established brand looking to push into a new market. McLaren is starting their golf business from scratch, and Rose has been along from the start. That is why he is not only an ambassador; he is an investor in the company.

He added that while he enjoyed his years as a free agent, he didn’t think what he was currently playing was the best thing for him, but he was able to form ideas about what exactly he needed.

“I think when you’re not with an equipment manufacturer, there’s a bit of a temptation to just jump in anyway, there’s so many good options out there,” Rose said. “But at the same time, I’ve learned so much from being brand agnostic for a while that I kind of have my own list of preferences now. I feel like I’m in an environment where I can bring all my preferences to a place where they can apply it to me.”

For now, Rose confirmed that the company’s initial offering will be two sets of irons, a blade and a hollow back, which Rose was still mulling over the exact makeup of his set this week in Miami. He admitted there will still be some growing pains as he puts the clubs in competition for the first time.

“Obviously, there will be a process of refinement,” he said. “You can try all you want, you’ve got to put the clubs in play and there’s going to be little situations, different lies, all sorts of things, just getting comfortable. But in the long run, no, I don’t see it being a problem at all.”

But this will only be the beginning and he is looking forward to building a complete portfolio with McLaren.

“I had a lot of ideas for every part of the game,” he added. “This is a good place for me to be able to throw out my ideas and let the smart engineers go figure it out. But yeah, it’s a fun process to think about it all.”