Justin Rose is doing it again.
The No. 5 ranked player in the world is officially joining McLaren Golf as its first global brand ambassador and will reportedly game McLaren’s new product line this weekend’s PGA TOUR stop at Doral.
McLaren is planning an official product launch this Wednesday, which coincides with opening festivities for this weekend’s Miami Grand Prix. A company press release calls it a “symbolic convergence of McLaren’s racing and golf worlds.”
McLaren announced last month that it was getting into the golf business. Rose, whose previous full-bag deal with Honma ended shortly after is began, is longtime 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 been working with McLaren’s engineering and development team for nearly two years. He’s been working on brand establishment and product development and has been serving as an overall advisor.
The 45-year-old Rose is playing some of the best golf of his career. After winning at Torry Pines in January, Rose had the back nine lead 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 the Doral this weekend, you certainly won’t miss the McLaren name. Rose’s caddy will be toting a McLaren branded staff bag in the company’s iconic papaya colorway. He’ll also be sporting 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 gaming McLaren gear at Doral, we could not find a McLaren driver on the USGA/R&A conforming list. We’ll see how that plays out.
McLaren is entering golf full throttle
When news that McLaren would be entering the golf equipment game broke last month, rumors naturally followed. One suggested that a pair of recognizable PGA Tour pros had already signed with the brand. The Rose news says at least half of that rumor was true.
The other rumor is that former Titleist wedge designer JP Harrington would also be part of the McLaren team. He did share McLaren’s Instagram post last month with the caption, “The next chapter.” Additionally, it was rumored that at least one former TaylorMade employee is involved with McLaren. That has also proved 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 gear
Rose’s history with equipment is nothing if not unconventional. He’s been a free agent with no formal endorsement deals since early 2020, following a short-lived partnership with Honma. After ending his 20-year relationship with TaylorMade, Rose became Honma’s first full-bag PGA TOUR staffer in January of 2019. He served as the centerpiece of one of the brand’s many attempts to crack the North American market. The relationship started with a bang, as Rose won the Farmer’s in his second start with Honma gear.
Things went south quickly, however. The deal ended less than a year-and-a-half later, when Rose dumped his Honma driver at the Honda Classic in favor a TaylorMade SIM. The following week at Bay Hill Rose dumped all of his Honma clubs, instead playing a mixed bag of TaylorMade, COBRA and Titleist gear.
That event effectively marked the end of the Honma-Rose relationship, with both sides publicly stating the deal ended “amicably.”
Rose later explained that extensive on-Tour testing was mentally draining and that he preferred working with setups he trusted.
That’s the part that makes this Rose-McLaren deal so interesting. The concern is that Rose might be putting himself into a similar situation as he had 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 developing product puts the relationship in a slightly different light.
