Rose makes last minute decisions with new Honma equipment

At one point during a testing session on the range of the 2019 Desert Classic on Tuesday, new Honma-signee and defending FedExCup champion golfer Justin Rose had over 25 different clubs in the bag. That included at least 3 different drivers, and many different irons and wedges; most of the wedges were Honma, while two different 60-degree models were Titleist Vokey prototypes. The Honma irons included TW-U driving iron models, cavity-back TW-747V long irons, and blade Rose Protos.

As of Wednesday morning, when he was joined on the range by swing coach Sean Foley, his bag remained packed with clubs; over 20 by my count. Per my observations, Rose was testing iron sets that had different grips on them, as well as different head variations. As he progressed through the clubs – from wedges, to irons, to drivers -- each swing was being recorded by Trackman and he’d give feedback every few swings to his team. All of the irons he was testing were variations of Honma models, and all of them had KBS C-Taper 125 S+ shafts in them.

It seems Rose is definitely going with Honma irons, most likely a mixed set of sorts. It also appears that Rose is set with one of the Titleist Vokey 60-degree K-Grind wedge prototypes, being that they were the only 60-degree wedges in the bag that I saw. He’ll likely fill the rest of his wedges out with Honma custom models.

For the top-end of his bag, Rose had two TaylorMade M6 fairway woods – a 15-degree and an 18-degree -- that were equipped with Mitsubishi Tensei Orange shafts. It seems Rose is set on the TaylorMade fairways with no other options in the bag.

As for the driver? Rose was testing a number of different driver shafts, each seemingly equipped with Honma TW 747 460 9.5-degree heads. In one of the drivers he was testing, he had a Honma Vizard FD-7X shaft, while in another head he had his familiar Mitsubishi Tensei Orange shaft.

The only putter in his bag was an Axis1 “Rose” prototype.

Of course, Rose isn’t alone in the chaos of early-season testing. Many players were testing different drivers, sets of irons and wedges on the range ahead of the Desert Classic. It just so happens that with this major equipment switch, Rose is testing them all at once. It’s early in the season, and for Rose, early in his new equipment contract.

Clearly, Rose is still figuring it all out. He tees it up at 11:40 am alongside Zach Johnson on the La Quinta Country Club course. We’ll keep you updated as he commits to a 14-club competition set and we confirm each of the clubs in his bag.