There is a new player in golf — but with a familiar name.
McLaren Golf formally launched yesterday, with Justin Rose, the 2013 U.S. Open winner, becoming the first to confirm that he will be playing with its clubs this week at the PGA Tour’s Cadillac Championship.
With the Miami Grand Prix taking place a few miles from where Rose will debut a new set of irons at Trump National Doral, McLaren, best known for its Formula 1 team and luxury cars, appears to be leveraging the global spotlight for maximum impact.
On Wednesday, the company formally revealed a line of golf clubs aimed at competing with well-known, established brands. Ryder Cup hero and LIV golfer Ian Poulter has also hinted he could join alongside Michelle Wie West, the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open winner, who was announced on Tuesday.
Landing Rose as a partner and investor is the real statement of intent but the timing raises questions. The 45-year-old has enjoyed a recent resurgence, rising to No 5 in the world rankings and pushing Rory McIlroy to the wire at the Masters this month.
The Athletic analyses McLaren’s move, whether it is likely to pay off and what the risks could be for Rose.
What is McLaren doing?
The British brand is best known for winning 23 world championships in F1 but in the words of its launch press release, it wants to “extend McLaren’s DNA” by moving into golf.
Players of all levels are constantly seeking any edge and McLaren Golf claims it will “push the boundaries of design and manufacturing to unlock new levels of precision”. A team of engineers has been working on the range and Rose has contributed at different stages during the past year.
“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,” Rose said on Tuesday.
Why has Rose decided to use McLaren’s clubs — and is it a risk?
The English golfer has a long-standing relationship with Zak Brown, McLaren Racing’s CEO, and is a regular golf partner of F1 world champion Lando Norris, both of whom were at the golf range’s formal launch in Miami on Wednesday.
Yet the timing of Rose’s switch has raised eyebrows.
He is having a fine season: he leads the PGA Tour standings in greens in regulation (reaching the putting surface at least two strokes under par) and is seventh in strokes gained approach (an advanced metric that measures a player’s game against the baseline). He performed admirably at the Masters, where he has now finished second three times, and is just two weeks away from the PGA Championship.
Justin Rose impressed again at this year’s Masters (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Changing equipment at a pivotal moment in the season is a gamble, especially for a 45-year-old who may not have many realistic shots left at major wins.
Golfers adjust their equipment and move between manufacturers all the time, but this is a drastic switch to a company with no history or experience in producing clubs, especially given Rose’s history. In 2019, he signed with the Japanese brand Honma, but quickly abandoned the clubs when his form deteriorated rapidly.
This year, he has been using a mixed bag of clubs, but his status as an equipment free agent will change this week. He is expected to use a combo set of McLaren Series 1 irons 5-PW, with a Series 3 4-iron (slightly easier to hit) in Miami, while keeping the rest of his bag unchanged.
Rose says the Homna experience has helped him focus on getting everything right during the design and build stage at McLaren, where he has been hands-on during a year-long process. “They’ve given me a fantastic feeling,” he told reporters before the Cadillac Championship. “And it’s outperforming what I have.”
Testing the irons in a tournament will be the next step.
Are McLaren’s clubs really any different from other ones?
First of all, they’re going to be one of the most expensive sets on the market as McLaren are charging a whopping £360 ($485) per club. That’s £2,520 for a traditional set of seven irons, a figure considerably higher than the top-tier sets from rival brands.
Rather than producing all types of clubs, McLaren have initially stuck to two sets of irons — one for lower-handicap players, and others who need a little more forgiveness. There’s no woods, hybrids, putters or wedges on offer at present, and just a handful of accessories, including towels, gloves and bags.
Determining how the clubs stack up will take some time, but the spotlight will be on Rose’s performance.
Justin Rose plays with his new clubs in Miami (Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)
The most striking features of McLaren’s clubs are the hexagonal milling on the rear top edge, alongside the McLaren Papaya Speedmark logo.
Rose is literally invested in the project, so he is only going to say positive things about them at this stage. “They (McLaren) want to be the best,” he said on Tuesday. “They want to operate in the high-end, high-performance category and the focus is on creating a really great product.”
Poulter also sounded impressed. “The Series 1 irons are a modern tour blade, super clean profile inspired by a muscle back,” he told fan media account Flushing It. “But the difference is beneath the surface, you have proprietary metal blends and internal weighting that enhances consistency and stability.”
How they compare to some of the best-performing irons on the market, from brands such as Titleist, Mizuno and TaylorMade, will be the deciding factor in whether the brand truly takes off.
How difficult is it to crack the world of golf club manufacturing?
Long-established brands have dominated the market for decades and even Nike, the previous sponsor of Tiger Woods, failed to disrupt the pack. It stopped producing clubs in 2016.
Historically, around 90 per cent of the market for drivers is controlled by five companies: TaylorMade, Callaway, Ping, Titleist and Cobra. Alongside these ‘big five’ are others, including Mizuno, Wilson, Srixon and Cleveland, leaving McLaren with a lot of competition.
Having brand ambassadors playing on the PGA and LIV tours will help, as will signing Wie West. The 36-year-old has not entered a tournament since the 2023 U.S. Open but recently announced she would return, and she remains a big commercial draw.
Michelle Wie West has also signed up to McLaren (Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
Convincing club golfers to change from brands they’ve used for so long may prove trickier.
Has a company associated with another sport tried to break into golf before?
Nike is the best example. The American sportswear brand signed huge names in golf, including Woods, McIlroy, Wie West and Brooks Koepka, and had some initial success, especially as it produced everything from drivers, hybrids, irons, wedges and putters to hats, shoes and everything in between. Declining sales forced a rethink, though, and Nike switched focus to golf footwear and clothes rather than equipment.
McLaren’s launch also has echoes of Parsons Xtreme Golf, known better as PXG, which came out of nowhere in 2014, aiming to design and develop the “finest golf clubs ever played”.
Others have tried to enter at a lower scale or collaborate with existing manufacturers. JLindeberg, a Swedish fashion brand that has made huge strides in the golf clothing sector, recently teamed up with Vega to produce a set of limited-edition irons.
Can anyone buy these clubs and how much do they cost?
McLaren Golf irons are only available at select fitting centres within the UK. Pre-orders have started and will be shipped out by June. At £360 a club, many golfers will be priced out, but expect to see a huge marketing push in the months ahead.
