The shock driver switch that put Justin Rose back among the longest hitters on tour

While it would be unfair to say that Justin Rose has by any means lost a step in terms of power off the tee, the fact remains that maintaining potency and accuracy with the driver is going to count more and more for the 46-year-old as he enters his third decade on tour.

This is not a predicament lost on Rose, whose past few years from an equipment standpoint have been, well, turbulent to say the least. The Englishman, formerly a well-paid member of Team TaylorMade, left the brand in 2023 for an ill-fated and ultimately short-lived deal with Japanese luxury manufacturer Honma. The two mutually terminated the deal after just a year, leaving Rose an equipment free agent once again.

Since then, Rose has put together one of the tour's most eclectic equipment set-ups, piecing together a set made up o clubs not just from his former sponsor at TaylorMade, but also Titleist and Miura. A point of friction has emerged recently, however, in his inability to get comfortable with a driver.

Rose gamed Titleist's TSR2 throughout the 2024 season, but spent much of the first half of this year experimenting with different brands and models after deciding another change was needed. He would ultimately go on to test four different drivers in tournament play, including switching models to the TSR3 and then Titleist's more current GT2 model, and hit the range with another two, taking his total number of clubs tested to half a dozen.

Now, however, a surprise winner has emerged from a completely different brand—one Rose has never really been affiliated with. The Englishman took to the course at this month's FedEx St. Jude Championship with Callaway's Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond Max—a late entry to the 2024 model line-up that combined a more forgiving larger head with the same low-spinning characteristics Callaway's Triple Diamond drivers are known for.

Joe Toulon, a PGA Tour rep for Callaway Golf, told PGATour.com Rose used the driver—a club he had never taken out on course—for just two practice sessions before deciding to put it in the bag for that weekend's event.

“(Rose) was looking for something that had a little bit more of a left start and would eliminate a right miss that he was recently struggling with.

“[We] worked on an option for him that would shift the start line a little bit further left, but let that ball flight kind of hang in there a lot tighter, a lot more consistently and then really it checked those boxes.”

It proved an instant fit for Rose, who would go on to prevail in a three-hole playoff over J.J. Spaun with a trio spectacular drives on the razor-tight Par 4 18th at TPC Southwind. He also made a significant jump in terms of distance off the tee, ranking 12th in that weekend's field for driving distance despite spending most of this year's tour season outside of the top 100. He's kept that form up as well, and goes into the second round of this weekend's Tour Championship ranked 21st in driving distance for the tournament so far.

“Who knows how he would've played that tee shot in the past?" continued Toulon. "How comfortable he was with the driver to allow him to hit that tee shot three or four times on Sunday I think says a lot.”