Drive to survive! McLaren now sells golf clubs

Precision engineering, cutting-edge materials… overpaid operators. When you think about it, supercars, F1 race cars and golf clubs have quite a bit in common. Throw in the fact Zak Brown (CEO, McLaren Racing) and Lando Norris are self-confessed golf obsessives, and it was only a matter of time before McLaren launched its latest venture – McLaren Golf.

What we didn’t expect was how seriously it’s taking it, signing up the world number five Justin Rose (below), Michelle Wie West and Ryder Cup legend (and Ferrari super fan) Ian Poulter as brand ambassadors. They’ve also set up a base in Carlsbad California, a “global hub for golf equipment design”, and taken the wraps off two new sets of irons. For non-golfers irons are the flat metal ones, not the hollow round ones.

McLaren says this represents “a natural evolution of the brand’s high-performance mindset", apparently translating "decades of engineering expertise from motorsports and automotive design into the game of golf".

"At the core of McLaren Golf is a question," it asked. "If there were no constraints, no legacy processes, no material limitations, what could a golf club become?”

Well, a golf club with orange bits on and “structural mesh… the honeycomb-inspired pattern also ultilised on McLaren supercars” appears to be the answer. All jokes aside, McLaren isn’t messing about with the tech, using Metal Injection Moulding (MIM) a process rarely seen in golf clubs because of the cost and complexity, that gives you total control over the club’s internal geometry and mass distribution in a way that more traditional forging or casting can’t.

Impressive, but you’ll pay for it, with each club costing £360. That’s each, not for the whole set. Not including gap, sand and lob wedges, most players carry around seven irons in the bag - PW to 4i – meaning a set of McLaren’s Series 1 or Series 3 irons will set you back in the region of £2,520. For comparison, you can pick up a set of TaylorMade’s P-7CB tour-level irons for around half of that.

The Series 1 – designed with lots of input from Justin Rose, who’ll play them on the PGA Tour starting from today – is a ‘Tour Blade’ designed for the “pure feel elite players demand”. Translation: if you’re not a single figure handicap, then probably best to leave your ego at the door and go for the Series 3.

The Series 3 are designed for more forgiveness; more distance and more stability through shots. In other words, if you’re a minted hacker, these are the bats for you. Hilariously, and in no way scraping the barrel to find links between golf clubs and cars, the press release references a “carbon-fibre bonnet along the back of the iron as an aesthetic nod to the brand’s racing and automotive heritage".

Over to Neil Howie, CEO of McLaren Golf. “Behind the scenes, we challenged every part of the process - from materials to construction - to uphold the exacting standards and constant pursuit of excellence that define McLaren. To now introduce these irons to the world and see them in the hands of golfers is incredibly exciting.” We couldn’t agree more Neil, now all you need is to design a McLaren you can fit them in.