Justin Rose made a controversial switch to McLaren irons midway through his season, and he has not been rewarded with positive results since then.
He first played with them at Doral for the Cadillac Championship, where he finished T65 and lost 0.01 strokes to the field on approach. The following week he played at Quail Hollow for the Truist Championship, and came in at T45.
His iron play hasn’t been the glaring weakness holding him back of late, but the momentum he built heading into The Masters has somewhat stalled since his club switch.
Speaking ahead of his first major with the McLaren irons, Rose gave his verdict on the new clubs.
Justin Rose says poor play has ‘nothing to do’ with McLaren irons
When asked about his recent play with McLaren clubs, Rose was quick to stress that his form has nothing to do with his iron play. He said that he’s enjoying the process of integrating them into his game, as he’s had a big say in their design.
Speaking before the PGA Championship, he said, “I think people, I think, you know, I’ve played so many different sets of irons in the last five years that I just don’t think that it’s a big deal. I’ve been working hard on this project for 18 months now, and it’s kind of like it’s a full wish list of all of the things I would like to see in a set of irons.
“So from that point of view I’m really enjoying — I’ve enjoyed the process of getting to this point. Yeah, I would love to play great this week with them. I can play great this week with them. The fact I haven’t played great the last two weeks has got nothing to do with the irons either.
“The testing process is an interesting one. You go through it, but not until you put something in play do you kind of have the time or the real ability to get comfortable with it.
“So, yeah, it might take a little bit of time to get fully, fully, fully comfortable just looking at something different, but yeah, it’s been a very measured approach and something I’m very excited about and something I’ve really, really enjoyed doing.”
Justin Rose explains delay to McLaren golf club release
Rose changed clubs in the middle of major season. It’s difficult to make a change like this at any time, but just after The Masters seemed like crazy timing to switch to this complete unknown.
But according to Rose, he was meant to add them to his bag in February, but there were some delays: “I was going to use them in February, and we weren’t quite ready to go. Then obviously try to target what would be a really good week to do it.
“You’re not going to do it the week of a major championship, so obviously the week of Miami seemed like a really good week to launch them because Miami Grand Prix was in town, PGA Tour was in town, it just seemed like the right week.
“Everyone — the marketing team, the refinement process of the testing, everything just began to lean itself towards that being a good date. But we’ve been close for a long time and ready to go pretty much for a long time.
“I remember there was talk about maybe even putting them in play for Pebble Beach. So it’s definitely been something that I’ve been working on for a long time behind the scenes.
“Yeah, now it’s just like getting after it. Put ’em in play, I’m comfortable with them; the technology behind them is wonderful. I’m seeing more performance in my range sessions, the spin and the launch and the speed and all the stuff I’m seeing on the range is performance, and I’m seeing the performance.
“So whether I take it out onto the golf course, there’s 14 other clubs, 14 clubs in my bag, six or seven of them are irons, there’s a lot of other things that I need to do to play well. So my focus is on all areas of my game, and I’m excited to compete and play well this week, yeah.”
Rose is a big game player at this stage of his career, so it would be a big statement to everyone if he can put in a good showing with his new clubs at the first major of asking.
