McLaren Revving Up To Enter The Golf Race

Were I to find myself with a gratuitous amount of money to spend on a new automobile, McLaren would be top of my list. I’m not sure I’d say the same about golf equipment.

Over the years, there have been countless examples of upstarts trying to position themselves as ultra-premium. Few have made a measurable impact on the industry; none has made inroads while maintaining prices and several no longer exist.

Will McLaren (yes, THAT McLaren) be any different?

Rumors of McLaren entering the golf equipment space have been circulating for more than a year. For a while, it was the kind of whisper you hear at an industry event and promptly file under “I’ll believe it when I see it.” But the whispers have gotten louder and the details more specific.

On April 29, McLaren Golf officially becomes a thing.

What we know

The latest intel suggests a pair of recognizable PGA Tour pros have signed with the brand. One continues to make headlines (for better or worse) while the other is perhaps a more natural on-paper fit for a performance-driven automotive brand although he hasn’t exactly been lighting up leaderboards of late.

On the design side, word is that a couple of guys who’ve made real noise in the wedge category are part of the team. And make of it what you will, but JP Harrington of JP Wedges (and formerly of Titleist) recently shared the McLaren Instagram post with the caption “The next chapter.” That’s not confirmation. But it’s not nothing, either.

We’ve also heard that at least one former TaylorMade employee is part of the crew tasked with bringing McLaren Golf to life. For a startup—even one with a nine-figure brand behind it—that kind of pedigree matters. You need people who’ve actually shipped product at scale, not just people who’ve designed pretty prototypes.

Car brands and golf: A history of meh

Here’s the thing: car brands trying to do something in golf isn’t exactly new. And the track record (pun very much intended) is underwhelming.

More than a decade ago, Mercedes-AMG had a booth at the PGA Show. The metalwoods were … interesting. The irons looked great. I don’t recall ever seeing them anywhere else.

In 2014, Williams Racing launched a line of clubs. Remember those? Didn’t think so.

COBRA partnered with Ferrari on a driver. It was also one and done.

For the last few years, TaylorMade has collaborated with Red Bull Racing on some limited-edition cosmetic pieces. Cool looking stuff, sure, but the operative word there is “cosmetic.” It’s a livery, not a technology partnership.

With that, McLaren looks to be going it alone—not a collaboration, not a licensing deal, not a co-branded special edition. A full-blown golf equipment company. That’s a fundamentally different (and significantly more ambitious) proposition.

What we don’t know

There’s still plenty we don’t know. Chief among the unknowns: the extent of the lineup. Are we talking irons and wedges? Metalwoods? Putters? The full bag?

For what it’s worth, the driver category is notoriously difficult for challenger brands to crack and, as far as I’m concerned, none has been particularly successful. Building a driver that can compete with the R&D budgets of Callaway, TaylorMade, Titleist and PING is a different animal than forging a set of irons. It’s not impossible but history says it’s unlikely—at least out of the gate.

The press release

McLaren’s official announcement leans heavily into the kind of language you’d expect: “high-performance DNA,” “exacting standards,” “pushing the boundaries.” The quotes from McLaren Automotive CEO Nick Collins and McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown read like they were drafted by the same PR team. Lots of “excellence” and “extraordinary experiences” and “benchmark-setting engineering standards.”

McLaren Golf CEO Neil Howie offered a bit more substance, noting the company has “hired some of the best minds in engineering and combined them with leading figures from the golf world to create an innovation-led company.” That’s vague but it at least acknowledges that engineering chops alone don’t make golf equipment. You need golf people, too.

The full launch is set for April 29.

The elephant in the bag

With no products to talk about yet, there are no prices to share. But let’s be honest—nothing about this reads as inexpensive. In a world where a significant chunk of golfers already believe equipment prices have crossed the line into absurd territory, expect McLaren to use the horsepower of the brand to justify gratuitously absurd price points.

That’s just speculation but I like my chances of being right.

The question isn’t whether McLaren can build beautiful golf equipment. With the right people (and it sounds like they may have some of the right people), they probably can. The question is whether there’s a sustainable market for it. History says the ultra-premium golf space is where ambition goes to die.

The McLaren brand has undeniable cachet and it sounds like they’re building a real team. That’s more than most startups bring to the table. But brand cachet doesn’t lower your handicap and a supercar logo on a cavity-back doesn’t make it perform like an industry leader.

I’d love to be wrong but I wouldn’t bet a McLaren on it.

More info as it becomes available.