Rory McIlroy’s surprising equipment reversal Sunday? He explained it

Rory McIlroy switched into new TaylorMade Qi35 woods at Bay Hill last week.

Then, on Sunday, he switched back.

After his first three rounds put him in the top 10, but just outside realistic contention at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, McIlroy showed up to Arnie’s place with the same Qi10 driver and fairway wood setup he’s used for the past year-plus.

This was after McIlroy sang the praises of his new Qi35 woods setup earlier in the week, including a 3-wood that he said carried over 300 yards.

So, what happened?

McIlroy explained after his Sunday 72 left him in a tie for 15th.

“Sort of going back to what I’m comfortable with,” he said. “I tried new woods for the first three days, didn’t quite work out the way I wanted it to. So, yeah, I went back to my old stuff today. I led strokes gained off the tee in both Pebble and Torrey, so it was a really good idea to change [laughs]. And then, like yesterday, I lost strokes off the tee, which is the first time I’ve done that in a long time.”

McIlroy normally dominates the strokes gained: off-the-tee statistic week in and week out, but at Bay Hill, he was rather ordinary (relatively speaking) through the first two rounds when he gained 1.3 strokes on the field. McIlroy leads the Tour in the statistic, averaging a gain of nearly the same number of strokes in one round as he accomplished over the first two days at Bay Hill.

Then on Saturday, he actually lost strokes (albeit just .032) off the tee for the first time since last year’s FedEx St. Jude Championship, when he finished T68 and hit less than half his fairways for the week.

McIlroy actually drove it worse on Sunday, losing more than two-tenths of a stroke on Sunday when he hit just five fairways, but it was clear afterward that he has a level of comfort with his Qi10 driver that he hasn’t been able to replicate yet. He confirmed afterward that he’ll likely keep the Qi10 in the bag through the Masters.

This whole episode tells us a couple of things and one of them isn’t that there is anything wrong with the new driver.

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Firstly, pros are often motivated to change the tools with which they earn their livelihood. Notice how I said “motivated” and not “asked” or even “encouraged.” The TaylorMade Tour reps are would never force McIlroy to swap out clubs. If McIlroy didn’t think he’d see a performance benefit from switching into something new, he wouldn’t even be trying it.

“There’s pros and cons to it, and it’s a blessing and a curse at the same time that we sort of have to go through these 12-month club cycles,” he said.

McIlroy said he just hasn’t given himself enough time to really comfortable with the new setup, which brings us to our second point: competitive golf and all other golf are two very different things.

Even for a professional golfer, hitting a club at home or on the range doesn’t even compare to gaming it in tournament play, not to mention with a $20 million purse on the line. McIlroy knows that about as well as anyone. Scottie Scheffler is going through the same thing right now.

Drivers

“I probably just didn’t give myself enough time,” McIlroy said. “And it’s totally different, you know, it can look good on the Trackman and it can look good on the range at home at the Bear’s Club or on the golf course, but once you get out here in these conditions that’s where it really shows itself and it just wasn’t quite ready.”

So for now, McIlroy will press on with his Qi10 driver through at least the Masters. But with the Players Championship this week, golf begins it’s so-called “Championship Season.” In recent years, McIlroy has played the Valero Texas Open before the Masters, and will likely play the RBC Heritage immediately after it — and also potentially the Zurich Classic, where he and Shane Lowry are the defending champions.

He’ll have only one week off after New Orleans before the Truist in Philadelphia and the PGA Championship in Charlotte in back-to-back weeks.

So it’s safe to say, if he wants to get a new driver in play, he’ll have to get comfortable with it quickly as we hit the meat of the PGA Tour season.

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