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McLaren made a big splash in Miami last week, where Formula 1’s Miami Grand Prix was held on the streets of south Florida at the same time as the PGA Tour’s return to the Blue Monster at Doral for the inaugural Cadillac Championship.
On Wednesday, the high-performance automotive company known for its racing team led by reigning F1 world champion Lando Norris officially launched McLaren Golf, with the aim of delivering “a new benchmark for golf equipment, engineered to McLaren’s exacting standards.”
Two days before it launched, McLaren Golf announced the signing of world No. 5 Justin Rose as its ambassador and an investor in the equipment startup. The 45-year-old Rose – who just finished T3 in the Masters a year after losing in an Augusta playoff to Rory McIlroy – immediately put his new McLaren clubs to work in the Cadillac Championship.
Justin Rose will carry the banner and bag for McLaren Golf’s new equipment venture.
COURTESY McLAREN GOLF
“From the beginning, this has been a passion project,” Rose said in a press release. “I’ve had the opportunity to be involved from the outset – working with the team, testing the clubs and helping shape what they’ve become. That level of involvement, combined with the standards McLaren brings to everything they do, made this an easy decision for me. I’m excited to put the clubs in play and watch the brand flourish.”
In addition to his orange McLaren staff bag, Rose gamed a set of McLaren Series 1 irons (5-PW) as well as a Series 3 4-iron on the Blue Monster.
“It’s been exciting to, this week, finally launch it,” Rose said Tuesday at Doral. “Obviously, great week to do it with the Miami Grand Prix in town, a lot of synergy this week to do it. Clubs are feeling great. Obviously a lot of my own preferences have gone into the irons that I’m playing. I’m excited to finally get them in the bag and sort of just enjoy them now for the rest of the season.”
A closer look at Rose’s new McLaren Golf irons.
COURTESY MCLAREN GOLF
It’s a bold move in the middle of the most important events of the season for the 2013 U.S. Open champ. He’s in the midst of an extended career renaissance with three PGA Tour victories since the start of 2023, including last summer’s FedEx St. Jude Championship and the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in February. Rose has also contended in three majors the last two years (finishing runner-up twice) and had a star turn in Europe’s Ryder Cup win at Bethpage Black.
So far in 2026, using Miura irons, Rose leads the PGA Tour in greens in regulation (71.98 percent) and ranks seventh in strokes gained approach (0.755). Instead of striking during the major window while his irons are hot, Rose opted to pivot and sign his first deal since becoming an equipment free agent after ending his unproductive term with Honma in 2020.
Through two rounds with his new irons on the Blue Monster, however, Rose was next to last in scoring (5-over) in the 72-player field, ranked 66th in strokes gained approach (-4.321) and 68th in greens in regulation (55.56 percent)..
He said in Florida, however, he’s not concerned about the timing or risk to his form.
“I feel like I’m in an environment where I can take all my preferences to one place where they can execute on that for me. So from my point of view, no, I’m actually looking at what can be better. I’m looking to mitigate risk,” he said. “Yeah, I’ve done this once before as well in 2019, obviously, and I kind of learned a lot from that process. So I feel a bit better place now to kind of go down this path. I think yeah, I think there’s some best practices that we’re kind of, we’ve sort of put into development really that I think are giving me what I feel are a fantastic set of golf clubs.
“I’m looking at some of the performance data that I’m getting on the range and places like that and outperforming what I have. So that’s the exciting part for me. Obviously there’s going to be a refinement process. You can test all you want, you got to get the clubs in play, and there’s going to be little mini situations out there, different lies, all sorts of things, just getting comfortable. But in the long term, no, I don’t see there being an issue at all.”
This is also a big move for McLaren, which stated in its launch announcement that the golf endeavor will be “led by a dedicated team of golf-industry experts and world-class engineering minds” with the grand goal to “push the boundaries of equipment design and manufacturing to unlock new levels of precision.”
“McLaren Golf is a high-end, engineering-led venture which goes beyond the equipment,” said Neil Howie, the CEO of McLaren Golf. “We’re building a brand grounded in McLaren’s high-performance DNA, and embedding it in a new sporting arena. We’ve hired some of the best minds in engineering and combined them with leading figures from the golf world to create an innovation-led company that pushes the limits of what golfers can expect from their equipment. We can’t wait to see our ambition come to life on the course this year.”
Other players signed up by McLaren are Michelle Wie West and Ian Poulter.
Meanwhile, Brooks Koepka dissolved another relationship, as the former LIV golfer and five-time major champion mutually agreed to conclude his endorsement partnership with Dunlop Sports America, effective immediately.
In November 2021, Koepka joined the Srixon and Cleveland Golf team, winning the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill using a Srixon driver and irons and Cleveland RTZ wedges.
Scott Michaux
