With old age comes wisdom and there are few among golf’s elite who are older or wiser than Justin Rose. That he of all people might stand accused of a senior moment was never expected of the script for the season’s second major.
But here we are, at Aronimink Golf Club, where Rose’s sagacity has been called into question ahead of Thursday’s opening round of the PGA Championship.
There will be numerous subplots to this tournament, from the little toe of Rory McIlroy to the bigger picture desperations of LIV, who simply need to deliver a champion as they hunt for life-saving funding.
But great intrigue will be reserved for the fortunes of Rose, whose choice of weaponry has caused such bemusement. And for solid reason, too, given 45 seems a curious age at which to wager the exceptional twilight of his career on new equipment manufactured by a Formula 1 team.
Since entrusting his irons to the boffins at McLaren this month, it would not be improper to report on the grid stall that has accompanied Rose’s first two starts with their gear. Ties for 65th and 45th at Doral and Quail Hollow on the PGA Tour were wildly out of keeping with his latest charge at the Masters last month, where he finished third with his old irons from an array of traditional brands.
When this was put to Rose ahead at the PGA Championship, his expression suggested some fatigue at justifying the move.
Just Rose used his new irons at Quail Hollow last week, but struggled throughout
Rose won a Tour event at Aronimink Golf Club back in 2010, the venue for this week’s PGA
‘I’ve played so many different sets of irons in the last five years that I just don’t think that it’s a big deal,’ he said.
‘I’ve been working hard on this project for 18 months now, and it’s kind of like it’s a full wish list of all of the things I would like to see in a set of irons. I’ve enjoyed the process of getting to this point. Yeah, I would love to play great this week with them and I can play great this week with them.
‘(But) the fact I haven’t played great the last two weeks has got nothing to do with the irons either.’
Ammunition against the switch has not been hard to find – he double-bogeyed his very first hole at Trump Doral, where the sticks were debuted to coincide with the nearby Miami grand prix in the same city, and then threw one to the ground at Quail Hollow.
More concerning are the statistical patterns – Rose’s strokes-gained figures for approach play across those two tournaments was drastically down on his averages across the season.
All of which comes against the backdrop of a ticking clock, because these changes can take months to bed in and Rose, remarkable as he is for a man deep into his fifth decade, does not have a limitless supply of time. That is particularly relevant in a schedule where all the majors are crammed between April and July.
Asked by Daily Mail Sport if there was any trepidation around disrupting a formula that has been so successful in his return to the top of the sport, the world No 7 offered an answer that even his sceptics ought to find compelling.
Rose at work with his caddie, Mark Fulcher, during a practice round on Wednesday
‘No, because I don’t think the formula is to do with being stuck in my ways,’ he said. ‘It’s about always pushing myself to be better. I’m not here at 45 because I’ve done the same things over the last 10 years. I’m always pushing myself, I’m always finding one percents. I’m sitting here talking to you because I’ve done a good job of grinding and finding improvement.
‘The Tour has got so much stronger in the last 10 years that if you’re staying the same, you are going backward.’
It’s an interesting defence, as is Rose’s assertion that a pivot to a novice manufacturer is less revolutionary than it might seem. By his count, he has changed irons eight times in the past fives years with a hodgepodge compilation of ‘four or five’ brands.
At Augusta, for example, Rose changed his four iron at a day’s notice and thrived, but naturally results alone will prove if this experiment is a success or ultimately perceived as a financially-driven misadventure.
Playing at Aronimink, he can call on fond memories – he won a Tour event here in 2010 and made a play-off in 2018, so he knows the quirks of this design, which is guarded by 174 bunkers and relies heavily on rapid greens for its defence. With many of them shaped like turtle shells, staying on those surfaces would be made substantially easier by the forecast of rain in the early part of the week.
As ever, the cast of contenders is largely familiar – Scottie Scheffler has been runner-up in his past three Tour stops and McIlroy is in buoyant mood after his second green jacket. He will attempt to navigate a blister issue on his right foot with a bigger shoe. Two wins in five starts also places Cameron Young among the favourites and Ludvig Aberg is one good Sunday away from a breakthrough.
For LIV, the imperative for a winner is enormous to convince anyone to fund the upkeep of Saudi Arabia’s discarded toy. Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau have dominated their circuit but are overdue a reminder of their qualities on the biggest stage. It is to Rose’s frustration that a similar imperative has been imposed upon his own game for different reasons.
