Justin Rose on his 'JR' custom irons and new putting technique

HOUSTON -- Last week, the Equipment Report revealed the company that made Justin Rose’s unique irons that were stamped not with a brand’s logo, but his own personal “JR” mark.

This week, GolfWRX.com caught up with the 2018 FedExCup champ at the Cadence Bank Houston Open to go more in-depth on those custom-made Miura irons and why he made a drastic change to his putting style at last week’s World Wide Technology Championship at Mayakoba.

More on Rose’s Miura irons

At this year’s U.S. Open, GolfWRX spoke to Rose about the Titleist 620 MB irons he had recently put into play (link: ). Rose liked the shape of the 620 MB’s, but he found he was catching too many fliers out of the rough. That led him to task Miura with building him a set of custom irons, just as it had done for Adam Scott.

“I was just catching a couple fliers with the Titleists, as you probably saw in Canada (where Rose shot a final-round 60 after a bogey on 18 when his approach flew the green),” Rose said. “It’s funny, you test clubs, but before you play them in competition, you don’t really know. In competition, you get all sorts of different lies and situations, and pressure, and adrenaline, and things like that. I loved the look of those Titleist irons, I just felt like the groove was not close to my TaylorMade groove, which I never catch a flier with.

“I felt like there was maybe a best of both worlds. So I tasked … the guys at Miura there to make me something. I saw they did something cool for Adam Scott. They came, and I thought they had a touch more offset than I had anticipated. Testing that was really interesting. I felt like I hit them straighter because of that.

“I’d go back to my TaylorMade, the P730, and I’d miss it a little right, straight away. So I’ve gone with (the Miuras). They’re still a little new on me, almost like half shaft offset.”

The claw has disappeared

For years, Rose has been using an Axis1 Rose Proto putter, and he’d been gripping the putter using a “claw” style grip.

At last week’s event in Mayakoba, however, Rose switched it up into a more conventional style.

“Left hand is still the same, but the claw has disappeared,” Rose said. “I felt like with the claw I was just struggling with the shape of my backswing. I was getting a little too linear in the backswing, a little too straight back. I just felt like the way my right hand was it was guiding me straight down the line. And I felt like when I put my right hand in just close to my left hand, I felt like it makes me symmetrical in the forearms, and the sweetspot works up the plane a bit easier in the backswing. First time in competition last week, I felt like I putted pretty good.

“It still doesn’t feel conventional to me. Conventional to me is the reverse overlap. I put the left finger down the side of the shaft, so it’s almost a two-thumbs style where my thumbs are very close together. So I don’t regard that as a traditional putting grip. I’m still quite a traditionalist in where the straight up reverse overlap, thin grip, Scotty Cameron style putter; that for me is traditional… but yeah, a slight modification. You know, a lot of guys are gripping it like that. Danny Willet has the exact same putting grip. Matt Wallace is quite similar. Matt Fitzpatrick has the exact same grip. It must be an English thing.”