Rory McIlroy heads into the weekend of the 2022 Open Championship three shots behind the leader from Australia, Cameron Smith.
Like a lot of golfers that made the trip to St Andrews, Rory made a couple of changes to his clubs in preparation for the firm and windy conditions that are possible in links golf. This is a look inside his golf bag.
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Driver: TaylorMade Stealth Plus (9°), with Fujikura Ventus Black 6x
3-Wood: TaylorMade SIM Titanium (15°), with Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White
Utility Iron: TaylorMade Stealth UDI (16°), with ProjectX HZRDUS 105 6.5
Irons: Taylormade Rors Proto Blades 3-9, with ProjectX 7.0
Like so many golfers, Rory’s club changes revolve around the top of his bag where he has replaced his 5-wood with a specialized driving iron utility to control trajectory in the wind — a Taylormade Stealth UDI.
“For Rory being that long of a hitter, when you look at the setup of the golf course there’s a lot of shots where the rest of the field would be hitting 3-wood off the tee and maybe even a hard drawing 5-wood. For Rory, he’s able to now use the Stealth UDI 2-iron that goes a little bit lower than both his 3-wood and a 5-wood. With the Stealth UDI, the wind is not hitting it as much and the ball is carrying far enough that it’s clearing the bunkers and rough as it should and he feels like he has a club that can help him no matter the conditions, which is really based off the fact that he’s a lot stronger than the majority of the field.”
-Adrian Reitveld, Taylormade Senior Tour Manager
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Wedges: Taylormade MG3 46° Standard Bounce, 54° High Bounce, 60° Low Bounce Custom Milled sole
So far this week, Rory’s wedge game has been strong and one thing he does that a lot of players have started to do is use a specialized pitching wedge instead of the standard set option. A specialized wedge offers more face technology than a standard set wedge which can help create more spin. The Sole grind of Rory’s 46° MG3 also has more camber (sole curvature), which can help provide more versatility on partial shots and for pitching around the greens.
Putter: TaylorMade Spider Hydro Blast