Why Justin Rose has lead tape on his driver shaft

Justin Rose has taken full advantage of his recent years as an equipment free agent, becoming one of the most prolific testers on the PGA TOUR. There’s not a club or shaft he’s unwilling to try to improve.

In the beginning of 2024, for example, Rose was using an older Titleist driver and Cobra irons. By THE PLAYERS Championship in March, he had switched into a Ping driver and Srixon irons (and his 2024 changes haven’t ended there, either).

Rose’s season has been uneven, to this point, though he shined in the biggest moments with a T6 at the PGA Championship and runner-up at The Open Championship. He has just one other top 20 (T11 at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am) this season.

Those timely performances have Rose well within the FedExCup Playoffs, but on shaky ground to make it to the BMW Championship. Currently 52nd in the standings, he will need a solid finishing stretch to ensure his season continues.

This week at the 2024 Wyndham Championship, the last Regular Season event, GolfWRX.com caught up with Rose and found five interesting takeaways from the Englishman’s always-interesting golf bag.

New and old

While Rose is not afraid to test any club or shaft on the market, that does not always mean he switches to it. At the top end of Rose’s bag, he combines new technology with five-year-old clubs.

After using several different drivers throughout 2024, Rose has recently switched into Titleist’s new GT3 driver, following a flock of TOUR players that have made the same change. Rose plays his GT3 driver in a B2 hosel setting, meaning it has standard loft and a 0.75-degree upright lie angle.

Most notably, Rose wraps lead tape around the butt-end of his Project X HZRDUS shaft. This helps effectively “counterbalance” the club. While adding lead tape to the grip-end adds overall weight to the club, it reduces its swing weight, making the head feel slightly lighter. It can help golfers feel a bit more connected to the club throughout the swing, and make the shaft feel a touch smoother during the transition. It is not for everyone, but for amateurs who have never tried a counter-balanced driver shaft, it could be worth a shot.

Although Rose uses new Titleist technology for his driver, he still uses TaylorMade M6 fairway woods (15 and 21 degrees), which were released to the public at the beginning of 2016. Sometimes, finding comfort with your equipment is better than using the absolute newest technology, and with his fairway woods, the goal for Rose is not maximum distance, but rather, maximum control.

Rose-tinted irons

By the time Rose showed up at the 2024 Masters, he had switched into a mixed set of Titleist T100 long irons (4 and 5) and Titleist 620 MB mid-to-short irons (6-PW), each equipped with KBS Tour C-Taper 125 S+ shafts.

Rose has kept those irons and shaft models in play since the year’s first major, but he recently switched out his shaft labels for new, custom “Rose” KBS shaft labels.

When you are a top TOUR player with a 2016 Summer Olympic Games Gold medal and a 2013 U.S. Open victory to your name, you can do cool stuff like this with your equipment.

Precise wedges

It is easy to forget just how precise TOUR players are with their distances and their equipment.

Case-in-point: the stamping on Rose’s sand wedge. The 55 indicates the precise loft of his rusted, Titleist Vokey SM9 wedge. He plays his 52-degree gap wedge at 51 degrees, and his 56-degree sand wedge at 55 degrees. This helps ensure that Rose achieves the exact carry yardage and trajectory that he wants and that his distances between wedges are precise.

For amateurs, take this as a lesson in distance gapping. It is important to hit every club in your bag to see if there’s proper distance gapping between each club; about 10-15 yards between each iron and wedge is ideal.

A new 1-of-1 putter

Rose used an Axis1 mallet putter since 2019, but when he headed over to Scotland for the Genesis Scottish Open and the British Open Championship, he switched into a new, custom Scotty Cameron T5 Tour-Only winged mallet.

The putter has a half-circle alignment line, combined with a black center line and a red-colored dot at the center of the topline. The half circle helps Rose with proper ball centeredness. The line helps with proper alignment, and the red dot helps focus the eye on the center mass of the putter.

Is Rose beginning another long-term putter relationship, or is this simply a short-term switch to shake things up?

Only the future has that answer, but if we know one thing about Rose and his equipment, he will continue testing products and technologies in constant search of improvement.

A tasty, new staff bag

Back in April, Justin Rose became a brand ambassador for Mustard Golf, which has a golf app that uses A.I. to analyze swing videos and offer coaching advice on the swing pattern. Starting in 2024, Rose has been using a Mustard Golf staff bag,

Well-known golf coaches such as Jason Goldsmith, Mark Blackburn, and Michael Jacobs are instructor’s with the app.

For more photos and information about Rose’s equipment, head over to GolfWRX.com.