Justin Rose returns to Olympic gold medal-winning driver at 2022 BMW PGA

It’s only Friday but there has been a flurry of activity at the BMW PGA Championship on the DP World Tour.

First, we had Billy Horschel calling out LIV players and Ian Poulter wearing his LIV team logo, and then play was suspended Thursday with the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. All of this before Rory McIloroy took a full swing from the rough that traveled a whole foot. As I said, busy week.

In contrast, it’s been a quiet week on the (professional) golf equipment front, beyond the release of the new Titleist TSR drivers and fairway woods to the public. But there was one not-so-new thing that caught our eye in the bag of Justin Rose: a 6-year-old driver!

Thanks to Sports Marketing Surveys — the European Tour’s version of the popular Darryl Survey, which tracks equipment on the PGA Tour — we noted that Rose returned to the 2016 TaylorMade M2 driver.

To be frank, spotting a more than 6-year-old club, especially a driver on the highest professional tours, is akin to finding Bigfoot. But if you talk to anyone in the know, the original M2 driver is regarded as one of the best drivers TaylorMade has ever produced. It’s not that Rose doesn’t like new gear — he’s using the newest Stealth fairway woods — but there must be something about the M2 that has him holding onto it for now.

It’s not likely that this will be a long-term solution for Rose but it will be interesting to follow headed into the 2023 season as new driver options become available.

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