Justin Rose speaks on new Honma deal and his outlook for 2019

Justin Rose had a big year in 2018, including a rise to the No. 1 ranking in the world. This year, he’s got some new sticks in the bag courtesy of Honma Golf, and he’ll put them in play at the Desert Classic. Here’s what he had to say about the start of his 2019 schedule.

Golf didn’t stop for Justin Rose until mid-December last year. The season had been packed with new achievements, including becoming World No. 1 and winning the FedEx Cup title, which he called “the cherry on top of a great season.”

When he packed up his clubs, the Rose family went to Finland, the farthest north portion of the country, often called Lapland, for several days. That part of the world, near Santa’s home, is the perfect place to literally chill, do some skiing and watch the northern lights. He didn’t touch a club for nearly three weeks.

When Rose returned to his Florida home, he decided he just wasn’t ready to play competitively.

“My original plan was to play in Maui and keep the momentum going and then maybe take a bit of a break in February but, yeah, it just came around too quick,” he said to media at the Desert Classic about skipping the Sentry Tournament of Champions. “I felt like the extra couple weeks at home, bedding in a little bit of new equipment, I just didn’t feel ready to leave on the 28th of December.”

Rose has recently changed to Honma clubs, raising a few eyebrows in golf. His previous agreement with Taylormade was for all 14 clubs. He has recently added the Honma Axis1 putter to his bag, and that was one reason he made the switch.

“It’s a putter that basically has the center of gravity and the sweet spot perfectly in line, which basically means it has zero twist. It wants to remain square to the plane in which you’re putting all the time,” he explained about the club.

Last season he used the TaylorMade TP Ardmore 2 putter.

“Obviously, being 14 clubs previously, I couldn’t use it, but that was one of the big reasons why I was looking for a bit more flexibility going forward,” Rose added. “If there’s areas of my bag that I want to experiment with, I now have that little bit of flexibility in there to do that. And the putter was one part of it.”

The reason for adding the Desert Classic to his schedule was to have some competitive golf under his belt before his original second 2019 start, which would have been the Farmer’s Insurance Open. The San Diego event, he thinks, is tricky after a break, and the Desert Classic was his answer.

“It’s great golf here in the desert, wonderful conditions, generally, to play in,” Rose noted. “The courses are in good shape. You can get a good read on your game, and if you can play well, you get some birdies going. So, I just felt like it was the perfect place to start things up.”

Even though he’s reached that No. 1 status, he’s still working on several parts of his game in hopes that he can retain the ranking for a little while. However, it didn’t occur to him that he had a chance until last spring.

“I never really gave it a lot of thought until about May last year where, at The Players, there was a scenario that — it was one of those unlikely ones — but if I won the tournament and Justin Thomas and Dustin finished 45th whatever it was, that I could get to No. 1 in the world. And I was like, wow, I’m getting close,” he recalled.

He first reached No. 1 in early September of 2018, and since that time, Rose, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Kopeka have taken turns at the top spot.

“Obviously you only get to No. 1 in the world by playing consistently good golf, and that’s always been my goal is to try to get the best out of my game week-in week-out,” Rose noted. “Once it presented itself, it became a big goal, and it’s been fantastic milestone in my career to have got there.”

Currently, Rose is continuing to work on his putting, which he feels got him to the No. 1 spot. In addition, there are other areas he thinks need attention.

“Iron play’s always been a strength of mine, but I felt like I can actually get a lot better at it,” he explained. “My mid to long iron play is really good. So, I would say the scoring clubs really is what I feel I could improve on this year.”

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Those distances of 150-160 yards and in to the green will be his focus.

“You need to understand what’s working, as well, so you kind of have to have the balance of, you can’t just go out every day and sort of hope that it’s going to be a good day, you need to know that you’ve taken care of business in all the variables in order to play consistent golf,” he said.

Last year, Rose was 9th in putting average, 34th in driving distance and 33rd in driving accuracy. Importantly, he was second in scoring average. The stats can get fairly granular, though, and one wonders if it’s possible for golfers to lose sight of just playing golf because of worrying about a stat set or two. Of course, if a player is 150th in putting, it’s time to make some adjustments somewhere.

dark. Next. Desert Classic 2019 Power Rankings

While he’s gotten to the top of one mountain, Justin Rose doesn’t intend to rest.

“I feel like having got there, now it’s about sort of letting that — letting it go a little bit in the sense of I need to focus on other goals now, and if I achieve those other goals, then I’ll remain at the top,” he said. “But it’s certainly been, once it presented itself, I’m delighted I was able to get there.”

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