The supercar maker and F1 racing team officially kicked off their new venture on Wednesday evening at a launch party that coincided with this week’s Cadillac Championship and the Miami Grand Prix at the same time by announcing their first two sets of golf clubs: the McLaren Golf Series 1 and Series 3 irons.
“We’ve been working towards this moment for a long time and there’s a real sense of anticipation to see it all happen,” McLaren Golf boss Neil Howie said in a statement. “Furthermore, we challenged every part of the process – from materials to design – to uphold the exacting standards and pursuit of excellence that defines McLaren. Now to introduce these instruments to the world and see them in the hands of golfers is incredibly exciting.”
Justin Rose, McLaren’s first global ambassador and investor, will make his debut this week in the Cadillac Championship.
Continue reading below for more on the McLaren Series 1 and 3 Irons, including my take on the release.
What’s really new with the McLaren Golf Series 1 and 3 Irons – and why you should care
All in MIM
To deliver its first precision approach, the company’s first metal designs were built around Metal Injection Molding (MIM). MIMing has gained momentum in golf equipment manufacturing over the past decade, allowing designers to create complex internal geometries and achieve tighter tolerances than conventional machining or simulation.
In the past, some companies have used the technology – which, as the name suggests, involves injecting powdered metal into a mold to create a structure – in putters, wedges and variable weights.
It also enables the use of proprietary steel made from composite powder materials.
“We were focused on creating something that was soft and felt right, while still meeting our performance goals—and I think we got there,” Ryan Badgero, McLaren’s director of engineering, told GOLF.
Those things first appeared on McLaren’s first two models: the Series 1 and Series 3 irons.
The structural mesh is MIM’d on the back of the clubhead.
Jack Hirsh/GOLF
Both have structural spacers behind each clubhead, which add support while cutting about 2-3 grams of weight. That may not sound like much, but in club design, every gram counts. The mesh also harkens back to McLaren’s roots in automotive design, as the pattern mimics the same structures found in McLaren Automotive’s supercars such as the GTS and 750S.
“We are able to MIM this mesh directly into the head, and then redistribute that saved weight to tune the CG and increase the MOI,” said Badgero. “At the same time, it provides structural support, allowing us to shrink in certain areas while maintaining integrity. It’s a two-in-one feature.”
That discretionary weight is also shared with the tungsten weight to create a more consistent CG – helping the long irons launch higher while making the shorter irons go easier.
A playful blade
The Series 1 takes a classic muscle-back profile intended for better players and tour professionals. By saving weight from mesh, the club includes a silicone cushioning system to improve feel, and tungsten weight.
Tungsten placement changes the CG continuously from bottom to top through the set, and from heel to toe. When paired with a progressive offset package, the long irons are designed to prevent fair misses, while the short irons remain neutral.
McLaren Golf
The specs show that the offset jumps about a full millimeter between the 8 and 7 irons, and jumps another 1.2 mm from the 6-iron to the 5-iron. Everywhere, the progression is about .1 to .2 mm. This was done in direct response to working with Rose.
“One of the key pieces of feedback is that players hate to see that right miss on long irons,” said JP Harrington, McLaren’s senior design manager for irons and wedges. “CG placement and offset work together to help blend faces more easily and prevent that leakage.”
The flat sole promotes flexibility and shaping for skilled players.
Range of charging players
The larger, more forgiving Series 3 enters the rear performance segment.
Here, the mesh and tungsten remain, but the size is concentrated in the center. That’s accomplished with a carbon-fiber bonnet with tungsten weight, and a lighter toe.
The center piece doubles as a balancing weight, allowing McLaren to tune the head weights to tighter tolerances while also offering a lighter head option.
Series 3 added heel relief for more forgiveness.
Jack Hirsh/GOLF
“Because it’s positioned at the center of gravity — we designed it to hit certain CG coordinates — adding weight doesn’t change it,” Harrington said. “So going from a simple B head to a normal A head, the CG stays the same.”
Only the Series 3 has features that add camber and mean heel relief to improve turf interaction and forgiveness.
With a traditional offset progression—similar to the Series 1 in long irons—the Series 3 can serve as a replacement for a long iron within a combined set. In fact, both the 3 and 4 irons feature the same loft and offset as the Series 1, while the Series 3 5-iron has a stronger loft but the same offset. A 5-iron that is slightly bent to match the Series 1 lofts can actually have a slight offset.
Justin Rose plans to use a Series 3 4-iron in the tournament and possibly a Series 3 5-iron as well.
McLaren Golf iron system
Series 1
Series 1 from all angles.
McLaren Golf
What’s going on: A traditional muscle back shape with a flat sole for easy gun shaping. The irons have been improved with a progressive CG from low to high and heel to center from long irons to short irons and a progressive offset package to help reduce fairway misses with long irons.
Whose: Precision strikers who want more speed and stability than the typical muscular defender.
Series 3
Series 3 from all angles.
Jack Hirsh/GOLF
What’s going on: McLaren calls this instrument a “cavity-back” in the player grade category. The Series 3 features an internal toe weight, with the rest enclosed within the carbon fiber bonnet to stop the CG inside the head and allow for A and B weight head.
Whose: Player abilities vary, from intermediate batsmen looking to gain more speed or better players looking for a replacement for a long iron.
My take: Golf clubs are made by the racing team
If you asked me to draw a picture of the irons that would be produced by a supercar or an F1 team, they would look something like this.
These are the golf clubs that you get specifically if you want to achieve high performance, just like the McLaren F1 team wants from their cars on race day.
It should come as no surprise that McLaren’s R&D and leadership teams can translate their technology and design golf clubs like never before.
Thanks to the MIM construction process, both the Series 1 and Series 3 irons take on a trend we’ve started to see in the machine space by making irons that play like a section. above see. For example, the Series 1 irons are playable to the point where traditional blade players just can’t play them, and the Series 3 irons will have the forgiveness and speed of something in the range player category while looking like a traditional cavity back.
As you’d expect from a big car company, none of these instruments are shy about speed.
Rose’s fingerprints are all over the Series 1 with progressive CG and offset to help reduce his tendency to miss to the right.
Series 3 is something I’m very interested in, and I saw it coming into my wallet.
McLaren is making a big statement in the golf world that should bring new ideas and innovation. The obvious next step will be the Series 2 irons, but as Rose teased earlier this week, eventually there will be a whole bag of McLaren clubs to choose from.
Price, Specifications and Availability
McLaren’s new Series 1 and Series 3 golf irons will be available in North America, Europe and South Korea through exclusive custom fit dealers to begin with. 30 April.
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