Justin Rose leaving Honma ???

[ASN21]

Not surprised, Honma makes quality clubs but not at the level of the big dogs.

[Nard_S]

Rose would be better off dumping his swing coach instead of his gear. The guy is so in his space like a complete nag during pre-round warmups, it's any wonder he plays as well as he does. At the PGA last year, spent several hours watching Pro's warm up. Rose had it going on better than most all, yet dude was constantly hyper coaching him. Who can play that way?

[Hedgehog]

I'm getting the feels JR to Honma was a bluff TM called, I guess he wanted a better contract that he was due because of his game, but didn't get it because he is not as marketable as someone like Rory or DJ.

Also think Honma was expecting to get a OWGR1 player for the money, but he has been struggling.. And IMO that shines an even more of a bad image to the brand.

Lackluster performance could have also meant a compensation decline from Honma and so we have a bag full of TM clubs. I just hope JR gets rid of that Morgan Stanley cap also, the shape makes him look like a British police officer.

 

[4rheel]

Don't know about Honma irons but something about the metal woods. Tried hard to keep the TW747 460 /455 in the bag but something just a little off about them. Didn't realize my struggles until I happened to stumble upon the EF Triple Diamond. Night and day difference for me and I haven't played Cally in awhile. In my opinion, Honma hasn't been good since the TW727 line and do not blame Rosey for the switch.

[BCC1898]

I think we’re getting to a time where pros WITH contracts will be rare. They play for enough money and club contracts have shrunk to the point where they’re better off playing what they’re comfortable with.

[Golfingfanatic]

Statement on Monday according to J. Wall.

[titleless_30]

At the tournament today and I got to follow Rose for a few holes, so naturally I made sure to check out hit bag and sure enough P730's and Mg2's in the bag!

[Bdmac79]

Pretty wild. It appears that there will be official statements from both JR and Honma on Monday, out of respect for the tournament this week.

(Info from Jonathan Wall’s Twitter)

[BostonWRX]

From Main pageDriver: TaylorMade SIM ( 10.5° degrees set to 8.5°)

Shaft: Mitsubishi Kuro Kage XTS 70TSThree wood: TaylorMade SIM Max 15°

Shaft: Mitsubishi Kuro Kage 80TXFive Wood: Cobra Speed Zone Tour at 16.5°

Shaft: Diamana D+ 80XIrons: Taylormade P730 4-Pitching wedge

Shafts: Project X 6.5Wedges: TaylorMade MG2 52° and 56°

Shafts: Project X 6.5

Wilson High Toe 60°

Shaft: KBS Hi REV 135XPutter: Axis1 Rose CustomBall: TaylorMade TP5 2019

[youngwaldo]

Time for him to switch to Mizunos and play the best he has ever.

 

Wk

[heisman6183]

I still don't get why accomplished players who have banked millions would want/need an equipment deal. The additional stroke or two you save by playing a mixed bag has to be worth more over a season than your deal, especially now with big money club deals being very limited.

[Golfingfanatic]

15° and 16.5° fairway wood seems wild. Would be a crazy gap to a blade 4 iron. Surely the Cobra has to be more lofted?

[Big L]

Taylormade- Ok, we'll re-sign you onto the staff, but on one condition"

Rose- "Ok, what's that?"

Taylormade- Just something to make sure we can "truss" you again

[iNeedMoreGolf]

I think the whole club or brand change very much affects tour pros as well as me or you. Otherwise adam scott tiger woods rory henrik stenson fleetwood koepka and many more wouldnt stick to old clubs in their bags. How often does a old reliable club go back in their bags? Very often. Theres a reason for that. I really believe certain clubs are perfect fits for us. Ive returned clubs that ive felt werent right for me after experience with them. Its part mental and part whats really happening.

[bowilbury8]

See Sergio Garcia.

[BlkNGld]

 

IMO, most tour pros can play 'well' with anything... but that doesn't mean they can win with anything.

[3jacker]

Even if I were to have $50 mil in my bank account, I'd still take another easy $1 mil.

There is no telling why he is leaving (or was booted). The statement Monday will not provide any insight either. It may have nothing to do with the $ or the equip.

[GoGoErky]

His interview from last month with golf.com talked about his move and him wanting to do something different and more flexibility. Yeah maybe some of it was TM and not wanting to pay him that he needed to move on like Sergio.

 

[BlkNGld]

Thought I read somewhere that Rose wanted more of an influence on how the equipment was designed, that it started with his desire to use the axis putter and from there went on to the clubs.

Of course that could just be the spin his team put on the situation.

I fully expect that come Monday there will be some bland "mutually agreed to part ways" statements from both sides where nothing more is said on the matter.

[GoGoErky]

It’s probably a combo. He dives into it a bit in the interview. It reads like he is pretty involved with the design and testing/feeedback on the honma stuff. There’s a bit in there about what he likes to see with irons and there some putter tech he liked which is probably another reason for the split from TM.

The timing of this split or whatever is going on is pretty interesting. Spend time on an interview about the brand, the gear and your involvement then a few weeks later dump the bag completely

[BlkNGld]

Yeah, seems to fall under the "that escalated quickly" category.

To me this sounds like something happened that's dissolved the trust. There may have been some agreement (contractual or otherwise) between Rose and King, possibly involving new product that the company decided to not bring to market, or it could be something as simple as a comment out of frustration that quickly spiraled out of control before cooler heads could prevail.

[BostonWRX]

Crazy Rose, Horschell, Revie havent really seen this before guys leaving their contracts that quick

[drvrwdge]

Per Jonathan Wall, Horschell and Revie left in part or in full due to a particular PXG tour rep leaving.

[GoGoErky]

This is what I’m thinking too. King left awhile ago but maybe in the contract rose had to ride out 1 year before he or honma could break the deal. Or maybe some tour performance stat was in the contract and gave them an out on either side. We might not find out the whole truth on Monday but hopefully we learn something with details

[GoGoErky]

Other than Reavie the other two have a year with rose and multiple years with Horschel on their contracts.

the ink on Reavie was barely dry and probably easy for that split on both sides. Billy was probably close to the end of his current deal so terminating early.

 

[BlkNGld]

I'll be shocked if it's not a separate ways announcement with gag orders on both sides.

Aside from satisfying the curiosity of golf geeks, there's really little to be gained by either side in airing the dirty laundry than there is to be lost.

[Krt22]

I bet he just got jealous of the sweet new TM tour rig. Likely wants to play video games vs the other TM bash bros

[RonSwanson]

 

As of July 2019, King is the CEO of Taco Bell.

[CStephenson17]

If I had to guess I would say it boils down to availability of products for him. Honma doesn’t have a big truck and has to have Scotty work on all of his clubs. Scott’s a busy dude especially when you are working and wanting to put stuff together. I would imagine it would be very frustrating wanting to make tweaks and not being able to get it right away like the big boys can do. PXG has done well because the came out with a truck and made themselves available.

[MattyO1984]

Interesting to see how this plays out if he does go back to Taylor Made. They seemed to be keen to move away from Rose and he seemed to be keen to move away them giving their insistence that he play a TM putter.