By Brian Wacker
Another month, another change for Justin Rose. A few weeks after parting ways with equipment sponsor Honma, the Englishman has split from his longtime swing coach Sean Foley. They were together 11 years.

The Telegraph first reported the news on Tuesday.

“I spent the past three months working on my game at home,” Rose told the newspaper. “I made a lot of progress and wanted to keep that momentum going when I returned to competition in Fort Worth. I felt it was a good time to take complete ownership of my swing and game. That idea is something Sean has always wanted for me.”

Rose, who finished one shot out of a playoff and tied for third at last week’s Charles Schwab Challenge, met with Foley over dinner at Lake Nona in Orlando before departing for Colonial. There, Rose outlined his desire to oversee his own swing.

Though both men said they’d been discussing the move for a while, the inevitable was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with Rose living in the Bahamas and Foley based in Orlando.

“These things are never easy because as soon as they occur, you have so many memories,” Foley told Golf Digest. “All I can do is second [what Rose said]. Eleven years as a coach of a team or player is a long time. Rosie’s like a brother to me. We had an incredible run together.”

But over the last several months Rose’s consistency has dipped. In five PGA Tour starts this year, he has three missed cuts and just one finish in the top 50. He has also slipped to 14th in the world, his lowest ranking since 2017.

Still, Rose reached incredible heights with Foley by his side.

Under Foley, Rose won all 10 of his PGA Tour titles, including his first major championship at the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion. He also reached No. 1 in the world on five separate occasions, won a gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and captured the 2018 FedEx Cup. His latest victory came at the 2019 Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

“I am grateful for the successes I had under his tutelage and the career goals I was able to achieve,” Rose told the Guardian. “The door is open whenever I have questions or want his guidance, as he continues to be one of my closest friends.”

Foley, whose other clients include Cameron Champ, Danny Lee, Brendan Grace and Lucas Bjerregaard, said he was equally appreciative for his time with Rose.

“In that time I’ve learned so much about the game, the swing, coaching,” Foley said. “I’m grateful for the time we had. It’s the end of something, but it feels like something new [for Rose] and I’m excited to see where it goes.”

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By Joel Beall
The worst-kept equipment secret in golf has been made official.

Months after putting a competing manufacturer’s clubs in play, Justin Rose has split from Honma. The two sides confirmed the news in a joint statement.

“For over a year, Justin worked closely with our team to help develop innovative and top–performing lines of Honma woods and irons,” John Kawaja, president of Honma Golf North America, said in a release. “His pursuit of perfection, approach to product testing and feedback has produced great value to Honma.”

Added Rose: “I am hopeful that during our time of partnership, we have laid the groundwork for Honma to continue to expand their brand. We both feel it is the right time to pursue our own paths.”

The marriage between Rose and Honma was short-lived. The former No. 1 signed with the Japanese-based company in 2019, instantly becoming their most significant endorsement in the brand’s history. In his second event using Honma products, Rose won the 2019 Farmers Insurance Open. However, he fell from the top spot in the OWGR rankings to No. 14 in less than a year. At the 2020 Honda Classic, Rose showed up with a TaylorMade driver; when he reached Bay Hill, there was not a single piece of Honma equipment in his bag.

Prior to Honma, Rose spent 20 years with TaylorMade. At the Arnold Palmer Invitational, the Englishman played a TaylorMade TP5 ball, 10.5-degree TaylorMade SIM driver, 15-degree TaylorMade SIM Max fairway wood, Cobra Speedzone Pro 17.5-degree 5-wood; his old TaylorMade P730 irons (4-PW) and two TaylorMade Milled Grind 2.0 wedges (52, 56 degrees) along with a Titleist Vokey lob wedge and an Axis 1 putter.

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By Mike Johnson
Well, that escalated quickly.

At last week’s Honda Classic, Justin Rose, who signed an endorsement deal with Honma at the start of 2019 to play a minimum of 10 clubs, showed up at PGA National with a TaylorMade SIM driver. He still had exactly 10 Honma clubs in the bag, but it is unclear whether the driver was required.

This week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, however, Rose left little doubt that his time with Honma is all but certain to be over as he is playing a TaylorMade TP5 ball, 10.5-degree TaylorMade SIM driver, 15-degree TaylorMade SIM Max fairway wood, Cobra Speedzone Pro 17.5-degree 5-wood; his old TaylorMade P730 irons (4-PW) and two TaylorMade Milled Grind 2.0 wedges (52, 56 degrees) along with a Titleist Vokey lob wedge and an Axis 1 putter.

Rose is Honma’s most significant player endorsement contract ever. Previously, its top-ranked male endorsee was Hideto Tanihara, ranked 174th in the world and a 14-time winner in Japan.

Rose was quoted in Honma’s announcement on his signing, saying, “Coming off one of my best years professionally, I wanted to make it a point to get better. I believe Honma equipment and the legendary Honma craftsmanship can help make me better.” Rose also was supposed to be involved in some of the company’s club designs going forward. In fact, the company produced a TR20 440 Justin Rose Sakata 7 driver.

Last year on the PGA Tour, Rose finished 11th in earnings and won in his second event with Honma at the Framers Insurance Open. Still, he has not had a top-10 finish in the U.S. in an official tour event since last year’s U.S. Open, likely prompting the need to experiment.

At Bay Hill, Rose still had Honma signage, indicating that he is still under contract with the company for the time being. As for how long that will be the case remains to be seen, but if history is a guide, this relationship will be over sooner than later.

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By John Strege
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Justin Rose parting ways with TaylorMade to take up with Honma might not represent a tectonic shift in the equipment landscape, but it did produce a jolt.

Rarely does an elite player at the peak of his career opt for a relatively unknown club manufacturer over a brand name. Think Nick Price signing with Atrigon in 1995, after winning the PGA Championship and British Open the year before.

Rose, meanwhile, is No. 1 in the World Ranking and the reigning FedEx Cup Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist. Now, he’s debuting a new brand of irons and wedges, and possibly a driver, in the Desert Classic in La Quinta, Calif., on Thursday.

Yet it wasn’t woods or irons that precipitated Rose’s decision to look beyond the most popular brands and opt for a brand well known in Asia but virtually a nonentity in the U.S. and European markets. It was the opportunity to choose any putter and what that represents to an elite golfer—freedom from club contracts that require a player’s entire set come from their equipment benefactor.

“That was a big factor in having that flexibility,” Rose said at Honma’s official North American launch Monday at Riviera Country Club. “The putter was a huge reason why this conversation [with Honma] started. I’ve continued, fortunately, to be surprised at every step of the way with the products Honma has been able to produce.”

The putter that Rose is eyeing right now is the Axis1, even less well known than Honma but a true expression of the freedom of choice he’s now focused on. Honma, too, offered Rose the ability to have input into the design of the irons, including the TW 747 Rose Prototype muscle back irons, at least some of which he will have in play on Thursday. Collaboration has become one of Rose’s motivating principles.

RELATED: Justin Rose signs with Honma; multi-year, 10-club deal could include driver, irons, wedges

“That’s really important,” Rose said. “Obviously, TaylorMade’s been one of the juggernauts of the game. There’s elements there that you can have an influence on, but they have a solid R-and-D team that’s working years in advance. The collaborative process of making these [Honma] irons was so much fun. I was able to make them look and feel like my own, which I think is awesome.

“Within the structure of the deal with Honma there were elements that I thought were very important to me at this stage of my career. There was a little more flexibility than I would have had at one of the top other companies that would have demanded 14 clubs, ball, putter. And I thought that was very important for me going forward.”

Rose will have several Honma clubs in play on Thursday, though he has not settled on a set makeup. He’ll play Honma irons, either all blades or a split set that would include its prototype cavity back 747 V irons.

“I may go blades all the way still,” he said, “but I have the option. The great thing is they’ve made the cavities look like a continuation of the blades. Even in the utilities, the top line and toe profile look like they flow through the set. Before I felt like I had two different sets. There was that awkward transition. I don’t feel like I have that now, which is great.”

He’ll also have three Honma TW 747 Rose prototype wedges in his bag—48, 52 and 56 degrees—as well as a Titleist Vokey lob wedge. He’ll still be playing TaylorMade fairway woods for the time being, and he’s “leaning toward” playing a Honma driver, the TW 747 460 with 9.5 degrees of loft.

“The driver was the risk,” he said. “I think that’s fairly obvious. I was incredibly confident I was going to have a set of irons that look and feel like nothing I’ve ever had and that has been the case. The driver I had to take people’s word for, and I’ve been blown away by the performance.”

Another option under consideration is replacing his 5-wood with a Honma TW Utility club with a 2-iron loft.

“Unbelievable,” he said of the club. “For some reason I hit them so much straighter. They have that great high flight, distance capability. They seem to feel more balanced.

“Do I put the 2-iron in and take the 5-wood out? It’s not a setup I would have thought of previously. Sometimes I go 4-iron and 5-wood. I have to make sure the gap isn’t too big. The 2-iron would be the perfect option to bridge that gap.”

The Axis1 putter that started Rose’s newfound freedom has not yet cracked his starting lineup. But it remains very front of mind as he starts the next phase of his career, at the top of one mountain but starting a different climb.

“[It] has a pattern that is very robust and no one else can really copy,” he said. “It’s a technology I really, really believe in and buy into. It’s not been the prettiest putter until recently. I’ve been working with the team there really hard to try to make something that looks really good or somewhat conventional, but has the performance elements that give it its pattern and its advantage.

“It’s been a very collaborative process.”

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TaylorMade’s new M5 and M6 line of woods was formally introduced to the public this week, and also saw a great deal of early adoption at the Sentry TOC. Three of the company’s heavyweights—Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm—all put the new M5 driver in play (with Rahm also adding the M6 3-wood). The club, which uses a technology in which the faces are made to be beyond the USGA limit for springlike effect then brought back just into conformance, also boasts a weight track that runs both front to back and along the outer perimeter.

Johnson, who frequently puts weight out on the toe of his driver, actually had his in the neutral position (one front and one back), as did Rahm. McIlroy, however, had one weight back and one toward the heel to promote a slight draw bias, his preferred ball flight. McIlroy also used the company’s new prototype bronze-coloured Spider Tour putter.

RELATED: TaylorMade M5, M6 drivers stretch limits of speed—and manufacturing

Stan Badz

Callaway also recently unveiled its latest in metalwoods and irons, and saw some of its tour staff have some early success, not the least of which was tournament winner Xander Schauffele, who had Callaway’s new Epic Flash Sub Zero driver (9 degrees) and Apex Pro 19 irons in play. Two other prominent names also put the Epic Flash Sub Zero into competition in Marc Leishman and, somewhat surprisingly, 2018 British Open champion Francesco Molinari who had a bag full of Callaway clubs including the Epic Flash 3-wood. Leishman also put the company’s new Apex Pro 19 irons in play. The Epic Flash driver utilized artificial intelligence in its design of a face structure that is rippled on the inside—a high-tech version of variable face thickness technology that provides faster ball speeds across more of the face.

RELATED: Callaway Epic Flash drivers fundamentally change face technology through artificial intelligence

Sam Greenwood

Gary Woodland signed a new contract with Wilson and has been testing the company’s Cortex driver, the winner of the Driver vs. Driver 2 competition. At Kapalua, however, Woodland had Ping’s G400 (8.5 degrees) in play, using the club to rank third in strokes gained/off the tee en route to a runner-up finish. Woodland also had a set of Wilson Staff irons (4-PW) to go with a Wilson FG Tour V4 graphite-shafted 2-iron.

Sam Greenwood

Paul Casey has been rumoured to be a possible signee with Honma (which recently inked Justin Rose). At the Sentry, Casey fuelled the discussion, as he put one of the company’s utility irons in play. Whether Casey ends up with the Japanese equipment-maker remains to be seen, but this was perhaps the strongest indication yet that it is at least under consideration.

RELATED: Justin Rose signs with Honma; multi-year, 10-club deal could include driver, irons, wedges

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Honma announced the deal with the No. 2-ranked player in the world and reigning FedEx Cup champion in a press release. The announcement referenced “a multi-year partnership in which Justin Rose would lead Honma’s worldwide tour presence. The Board sees this as an important milestone in Honma’s efforts in global professional golf.”

Those efforts are being led by Mark King, the former CEO at TaylorMade, the company with whom Rose had an endorsement contract for his entire 20-year professional career up to this point. In August, King told Golf Digest he is serving as a consultant to Honma, although others familiar with the company believe King is playing a more significant role in helping the Japanese brand establish a greater presence in Europe, North America and the U.S. in particular. Signing the reigning Olympic Gold Medalist who plays most of his golf in the States and led Europe’s victorious 2018 Ryder Cup team would clearly be a step in that direction.

Company spokesman John Kawaja indicated that Rose is expected to play a Honma driver, forged irons and wedges. Rose, 38, is scheduled to start his year at the Desert Classic in Palm Springs, Jan. 17-20. Kawaja said that although the set makeup is not yet confirmed, Rose is under contract to play 10 Honma clubs. He said those clubs are likely to feature versions of models introduced late in 2018 in Japan. That group is expected to include the T//World TW747 driver; a prototype version of the forged cavity back T//World TW747 V in the 4- through 6-iron; and a prototype T//World 747 “Justin Rose” forged muscleback iron in the 7-iron through 9-iron. Rose also is expected to play custom prototype versions of the T//World TW forged wedges (47, 56 and 60 degrees).

The T//World TW747 driver that debuted in Asia late last year reportedly features “the world’s lightest” carbon crown, tungsten in the sole for a low center of gravity and a unique adjustable hosel system that changes loft, lie and face angle while maintaining the same position for the spine of the shaft.

Rose, who will carry a Honma bag and have the Honma logo on both sides of his hat, also will be consulted on future Honma product development.

Honma, the 60-year-old company famous for its gold-plated clubs (including one given to President Trump by Japanese president Shinzo Abe in 2017), artisan-style craftsmanship and five-figure price tags, has redoubled its efforts to become a major player in the golf business both globally and specifically in North America after having been purchased by Chinese businessman Liu Jianguo.

The signing of Rose is easily Honma’s most significant player endorsement contract ever. Previously, its top-ranked male endorsee was Hideto Tanihara, ranked 174th in the world and a 14-time winner in Japan. Honma also has endorsement contracts with former No. 1-ranked women So Yeon Ryu and Shan-Shan Feng.

There are rumours that Honma is working on signing at least one other non-Asian player based on the U.S. tour.

Rose was quoted in Honma’s announcement as being “extremely excited to be joining Honma. Coming off one of my best years professionally, I wanted to make it a point to get better. I believe Honma equipment and the legendary Honma craftsmanship can help make me better.”

Honma’s chairman Liu said that Rose aligns with the “company’s values,” and “with Justin’s local and international influence in the sport and his media coverage and social media following, the partnership will create an immediate and positive uplift of Honma’s brand image and product awareness in mature markets such as North America and Europe which will in turn accelerate the implementation of Honma’s growth strategies in these markets.”

Honma’s stock price on the Hong Kong stock exchange is up nearly 30 percent since the first reports of Rose’s rumored signing began appearing two months ago.

Honma is planning to unveil its latest line of equipment to the North American market later this month.

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