THE MODERATOR: We would like to welcome Justin Rose to the interview room here at the 2026 Cadillac Championship. Justin, it's the TOUR's first time back to Doral since 2016. As a past champion here at this course in 2012 what good memories do you have from that win?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, absolutely. No, good to be back, from that point of view. That was obviously a really great time in my career where I felt that I was on a nice journey. Obviously it was a World Golf Championship at the time. Previous year I had won my first Playoff event. The year before that my first PGA TOUR event. So in my mind next stop was a major championship after moving through the gears, obviously that happened in 2013. So yeah, the Cadillac Championship in 2012 was a really nice part of my story and a fun part of my career for sure.
THE MODERATOR: Just got done playing the back nine. What changes have you seen automatically from the course?
JUSTIN ROSE: I feel, I mean, obviously there was a lot of changes, and then there's been some softening of the change, I think, right, in the last few years. The course is playing really nicely today. There wasn't a ton of wind which I think is a huge factor on this golf course. The rough is, I would call it in the fair department, for sure. Obviously you can get some fliers, get some balls that sit down, get some tricky shots out there all the time. But I feel like today, for example, some of the balls were lying okay in the rough, you felt like you always had a chance to get it up and around the green. Greens are relatively big, especially when the wind is not blowing as much. But obviously there's a lot of little sections to the greens that, as the weather gets a little tougher, or should you get some gusty winds you kind of, I think incrementally this course gets harder and harder. Today it was a nice walk and played relatively okay.
THE MODERATOR: We'll go and open up to questions.
Q. Wanted to know how the whole deal with McLaren came about and how the clubs feel putting them in play.
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, no, it's been obviously, from my point of view, the news of the week, for sure. So McLaren Golf has been something that's been on the back burner for a good number of months. Obviously to launch a brand out of the ground obviously has been going for a lot longer than a year. It's something I've been involved with from the outset, really helping the engineering team, really testing the very first editions of the club. So yeah, I've been kind of working with the project for well over a year probably. So it's been exciting to this week finally launch it. Obviously great week to do it with the Miami Grand Prix in town, a lot of synergy this week to do it. Clubs are feeling great. Obviously a lot of my own preferences have gone into the irons that I'm playing. I'm excited to finally get them in the bag and sort of just enjoy them now for the rest of the season. But it's been a lot of fun. Obviously, yeah, from my point of view McLaren, I live 20 minutes away from the MTC, the McLaren Technology Center there, so they're my home team from an F1 point of view and fun to align with them on this project.
Q. Have you spent any time with the drivers?
JUSTIN ROSE: Lando and Zak have become buddies of mine. They're both very keen golfers. I think there's a little bit of a get together tomorrow night. So which is kind of before their week gets serious, before our week gets serious. But, yeah, those guys are probably as excited about the launch as I am.
Q. People might look at your form over the last couple of years and think why would you want to change your clubs. Is there a risk involved?
JUSTIN ROSE: Do you know what, I don't think I've been playing the perfect set of clubs for me I've been just kind of playing -- I think when you're not with an equipment manufacturer it's, there's a little bit of temptation just to bounce around anyway there's so many good options out there. But at the same time I've learned so much from being brand agnostic for a while that I kind of have my own preference list now. I feel like I'm in an environment where I can take all my preferences to one place where they can execute on that for me. So from my point of view, no, I'm actually looking at what can be better. I'm looking to mitigate risk. Yeah, I've done this once before as well in 2019 obviously and I kind of learned a lot from that process. So I feel a bit better place now to kind of go down this path. I think yeah, I think there's some best practices that we're kind of, we've sort of put into development really that I think are giving me what I feel are a fantastic set of golf clubs. I'm looking at some of the performance data that I'm getting on the range and places like that and out performing what I have. So that's the exciting part for me. Obviously there's going to be a refinement process. You can test all you want, you got to get the clubs in play, and there's going to be little mini situations out there, different lies, all sorts of things, just getting comfortable. But in the long-term, no, I don't see there being an issue at all.
Q. From McLaren's point of view is this an initial thing for them, do they want to be one of the big players?
JUSTIN ROSE: They want to be the best in the sense of, you know, if you're looking at one of the big players in terms of scale, I don't think that's how they're seeing the business. They want to operate in that sort of high end, high performance category, and I think that that's sort of in the realm of is maybe, I don't even know how many sets or whatever, but more limited production, maybe 6,000, 8,000 sets whatever it might be, I don't know. But just really creating a really great product. That's the focus.
Q. Did you get Poulter into it or?
JUSTIN ROSE: I didn't get Poulter into it, but you know him, he's such a petrol head, and the fact that he's on board -- well I don't know if he is on board, but he's excited about the project. I saw that he posted something about testing the clubs. We were texting this week about how that journey's gone for him, and what have you. We were bashing our heads together on the process, how it's been for him. But, yeah, listen, it's exciting for, I think it's an opportunity for a lot of players to sort of test it, to explore what we've been working on.
Q. I wonder if you might talk about the little bit of a scheduling glut that we're in right now. We're missing the most guys in a Signature Event. For the first time five of the, five of the top 15 are not here. Obviously there's another one next week and then a major after that, and we've just had one a couple weeks ago. Any sense of how tough this period is and if you would like to see it change?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, for sure. I looked at this period coming up and I think something had to give, for sure. For me it kind of ended up being the RBC, especially what happened after Augusta. I felt like I knew what was coming, I knew what a big run of events were coming, obviously with PGA Championship being on the back of this three. For me personally, after the Masters, I feel like I needed that week extra to reflect and get the recovery going into this big run of events. So, yeah, when you're having to miss great events to prepare for other great events it's not ideal. Obviously this event was added late in I guess the structure of the sort of elevated event structure that we had. This is obviously a new edition, so it had to fall somewhere. So I guess if we were to be, I'm sure there's a group of players and people, the Competition Committee or whatever it's called, looking at the best practices going forward. So I'm sure there's been a lot of talk about our schedule next year, the year after, whatever it is. I'm sure that this period of time will be refined, for sure.
Q. How have you approached going into majors before? Is it unusual that you would play two straight going into a major, and obviously these are big in their own right.
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, historically things that work well for me are the third week is often, you know, one of my best weeks, when I'm playing little runs of events, but I tend not to play more than three in a row as well. So I think second week, stroke third week, out of a three-week run is typically when I find my form. Often you practice and you take a couple weeks off and you think you're ready to go in that first week and there's something that feels different on the course relative to your practice, and then you find that little refinement period in week two, week three. The good thing about these two going into a major championship is that you can be really patient with your game, in the sense of there's four rounds, you know you're going to play eight competitive rounds of golf. I think you got to maybe look at how you approach all the other stuff that goes with the tournament. How many balls you hit in and around your four competition or your eight competition rounds over the next two weeks, just making sure that that freshness remains for week three. But as you say, these are big tournaments in their own right, and as soon as you see your name on the leaderboard it's like, okay, you shelf anything else and you're right here.
Q. Last week we obviously saw Alex and Matt do something that was really significant and incredible. Have you talked to them at all, congratulated them, and how did that impact you, having seen and understanding the DP World Tour side to the PGA TOUR side?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I was following. Last week I was at home I was practicing a lot, trying to be with my family as much as I could. I wasn't watching, but I was definitely watching on-line, I was watching it on my flight on Sunday -- I flew over here on Sunday from London, and I was tracking exactly what happened. I seemed to lose Wi-Fi, as it always happens, when they're on the 17th hole. I saw Matt hit the fairway on 18, and I'm like, okay, well that's 260 yards into that green is what Alex had. And then my Wi-Fi went dead. So I was waiting for 30 minutes, like really, kind of really waiting, because it was obviously a very exciting finish and so much on the line. Obviously for Matt, probably a lot of pressure on behalf of his brother, and I'm sure that's probably the most pressure that he probably felt in the last few weeks, even though he's been winning a lot and playing such great golf. But the thought of getting his brother such an amazing leg up in his career I'm sure was a huge amount of pressure. That bunker shot that Matt hit I think probably has to go down as shot of the year so far in terms of everything that was on the line, what it means to everybody involved, the family dynamic and everything. So I was delighted for the lads. Obviously my coach Mark Blackburn coaches both of those guys, so I was very much keyed into the journeys that they have both been on, and what a great progression they have had in their games certainly this season. Yeah, I guess it's been a good spring in the Fitzpatrick family, for sure.
Q. One small follow-up on golf clubs, how many clubs are going to be in your bag will be McLaren?
JUSTIN ROSE: Looking like 4-iron through wedge, pitching wedge. Which is basically, right now it's irons is the offering. And yeah, so yeah 4-iron through. I got the two sets available. I got the 1s and 3s. The 1s are very much a good player blade. The 3s are very much more your approachable mid handicap style club, which is just performing so well in my long irons that I can't not put it in. I'm just refining that last end of the bag. Like do I put a 5-iron with the blade or the 3s in. So I'm making those final little decisions.
Q. Do you want to work on a putter?
JUSTIN ROSE: I think it will be ultimately hopefully doing everything at some point, yeah. I got lots of ideas on every part of the game. This is a good place for me to be able to put my ideas down and let the smart engineers go figure it out. But yeah it's a fun process to think of it all.
Q. Can you share with us a little bit about from Sunday after the finish at the Masters, the emotions that you felt and how you have been able to process, you said you needed some time to reflect, who you have you processed that since then?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, pretty straightforward. If I'm honest, it's just disappointing. I felt like when you kind of get yourself into the lead going into the back nine on Sunday, look there were kind of -- I made three mistakes back-to-back. I wasn't a hundred percent comfortable on the shot at 11.
12, there were a few variables going on there in terms of the lie. We were a little bit behind on time. There was some blowing at the green. I had a pine cone behind my ball. There were a few things -- I got out of my zone there a little bit which always happens in a tournament. You don't often just cruise to the finish, right. So these are all challenges you face all the time.
Then I think the 3-putt on 13 was like a little bit of a loss of patience based upon the two bogeys on 11 and 12. So, yeah, I just had to think about that and go, okay, well is there a learning there, how can you play that better next time. But again I felt like close, do you know what I mean, just close. It coulda happen, nearly happened, should have happened. Then, yeah, that's just like a little hollow empty feeling for a few days. But then last week actually kind of kicked back into gear, got my motivation back, enthusiasm. Had one of my best training weeks I've had in a long time in terms of physically in gym doing all the work I needed to do. I feel like I needed to give myself that time and not be around thousands of people that are reflecting on that close call too. I just needed to here hear my own thoughts rather than everybody else's for a week.
Q. (No Microphone.)
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I was in the right place, yeah.
Q. (No Microphone.)
JUSTIN ROSE: What I just said, yeah. Yeah.
Q. Can you talk about the 18th hole here and what makes it so difficult tee to green, and then kind of your approach for this week for that hole?
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I just played it like 10 minutes ago and I had to ask my caddie how many balls we had left. Wind was in off the left today which is ultimately like the hardest wind you can play that hole in because you can't quite cover the left side so there's a bit of a pinch point, fairway's only about 15 yards wide maybe at that section, which today was the landing section. So the right hand trees are going to be a busy place with 70 guys coming through there on that wind direction. You're in the lap of the gods there in terms of the lie you get, what have you. Just a very narrow tee shot, and then obviously hazards along the way. So you're trying to manage the risk really on that hole. To play it properly you have to stand up and make two great swings.
Then if the wind flips the other way it's a bit of a different hole. You can get 9-iron in your hand, it can become a lot less demanding. So, but today was how it plays its toughest, for sure.
Q. Curious, do you have any experience or recollection of Royal Lytham? It just got named yesterday as the 2028 Open Championship venue. Curious if you recall it, played there much.
JUSTIN ROSE: Yeah, I played there a lot as an amateur. There's something called the Lytham Trophy, which is one of the big amateur championships that I played in there. Definitely played a couple of Open Championships there. Yeah, like more of like an inland feeling links than a very coastal. You feel like you're in a little town. There's some trees around. You feel a little cocooned at times. Good golf course though. Technically a good golf course. But, with respect, not one of the most beautiful, or not one that's on my radar of like my favorites. But as a technical test of golf, like really, really good.
Q. As we talked about already there's some players missing this week when there's eight Signature Events. What do you think is going to happen if there are 16 potentially in the future as Brian Rolapp mentioned?
JUSTIN ROSE: 16 Signature Events, or 16 equally good events? Well, yeah, you're going to get guys playing where they want to play, courses that suit them. Which I don't think is a bad thing. I think that's the nature of -- you know what the PGA TOUR's trying to do is create the best possible product and the best possible tournaments in the most appealing time of the year. I think hopefully that is the best thing for the players and the players go, That's my job, this is the season, this is time to knuckle down and get down to business. But if getting down, you know, getting, playing your best golf, if that means that that flow of events suits you, then that's what you have to commit to, to kind of give your best performance on the best courses or the courses that suit you the best, in order to accumulate the right amount of points to win the Fed Cup. That's the goal. So everybody's going to have a slightly different recipe of how that's done, but I think hopefully you're going to aggregate that everybody's going to cover 14 of those at some point during their season. So I think that that's, that would be, in order of talking about things I don't even know if it can happen, but that would feel about right to me.
THE MODERATOR: Justin, thank you for the time. Good luck this week.
JUSTIN ROSE: Cool. Thank you.
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