Rory McIlroy has settled on a driver for the US Open (but he doesn’t want to talk about it!)
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World No.2 Rory McIlroy was a touch shirty with reporters when asked about his TaylorMade setup as he gets ready for Oakmont’s toughest test…
It looks like Rory McIlroy has made a decision on his driver ahead of the US Open.
The Northern Irishman has put those of us who care way too much about these things through the wringer this year. First he switched out his trusty TaylorMade Qi10 for the new Qi35 for three rounds at the Arnold Palmer Invitational before swapping straight back – incurring a hefty Uber bill as a result. He kept that in to win the Grand Slam at Augusta, then there was all that non-conforming drama at the PGA Championship, before he had another go with the 2025 model at last week’s Canadian Open, where he failed to make the weekend – his first missed cut since The Open.
McIlroy hit just 13 of 28 fairways en route to rounds of 71 & 78 that left him near the bottom of the leaderboard.
“I hit some drives that I like, so that was encouraging,” he said before leaving TPC Toronto on Friday. “Overall I’m still trying to work on some things, but I’m OK with where everything is.”
He added: “It’s hard with the driver. The one I had been playing with previously, when I missed with it, I was a little bit left. Then my miss with this one is a little bit right. It’s just trying to figure that out and manage it a little bit.
“It’s a nice feeling to get up the middle of the fairway and fully release it and know it’s not going to go left on you.”
Rory McIlroy's 'Dot' version of the TaylorMade Qi35 driver has a 44" Fujikura Ventus VeloCore+ Black 6 X shaft.
“Of course it concerns me,” he admitted after a second-round 78 saw him finish 9-over-par in Toronto. “You don’t want to shoot high scores like the one I did today. Still I felt like I came here with a new driver thinking that that was going to be good and solve some of the problems off the tee, but it didn’t.
“Obviously going to Oakmont next week, what you need to do more than anything else there is hit fairways. I’m still searching for the missing piece off the tee. Obviously for me, when I get that part of the game clicking, then everything falls into place for me. Right now that isn’t. That’s a concern going into next week.”
Well, it looks like a decision has been made. Though, for some reason, he was keen to keep it a secret during his press conference at Oakmont.
“Every driver has its own character and you’re trying to manage the misses,” he said. “I feel like, as the last few weeks go, I think I learnt a lot on Thursday and Friday last week and did a good bit of practice at home and feel like I’m in a better place with everything going into this week.”
When asked what he learned from that practice, he laughed and added: “I learned that I wasn’t using the right driver.”
After confirming that he had settled on a driver for this week, he simply replied: “Yeah.”
When asked what it is, he added: “A TaylorMade.”
When pushed for a model, he replied: “I mean, come out and watch me hit balls, and you’ll see.”
Thankfully, the photographers had been out doing just that, and all evidence points to McIlroy putting the Qi10 back in the bag for the US Open…
Rory McIlroy's TaylorMade Qi10 driver has a Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X shaft.
Rrp: $629.99
Rrp: $629.99
Ball game
It’s not the first time McIlroy has messed around with his equipment setup this season, though the first one went a bit more smoothly.
The five-time major champion opened his season at Pebble Beach for the Pro-Am, and the campaign could not have got off to a better start when he aced the par-3 15th at Spyglass Hill during the first round.
That switch all came about when he was “messing around at The Grove”. (That’s NBA legend Michael Jordan’s golf course in Florida, by the way, not the fancy resort near London.)
“I just started to hit some chips with the TP5 instead of the TP5x and I really loved how I felt,” McIlroy said at the time.
“I hadn’t really tested the 2024 TP5, and I loved how it was reacting around the greens. And then I started hitting some 60, 70-yard shots with it, and it was coming off [with] much lower launch, but spinnier.”
A self-confessed equipment geek, this sent McIlroy into a testing spiral.
“I just did some testing with [the 2024 TP5] and compared it to the TP5x,” he explained. “I used a 2019 TP5, and the difference between a 2019 TP5 and a 2019 TP5x was a lot in terms of the spin rates and the launch angles.
“[The 2024 TP5] seems to launch probably a degree lower for me, but the spin rate’s very, very similar, which I really like.”
TaylorMade's premium golf balls that exhibit outstanding short-game spin and control.
Pros
- Excellent short-game spin and control
- Extremely soft feel and incredibly responsive
- Lower and more penetrating ball flight than the previous model
- Tour approval being in the bags of some of the biggest stars in golf
Cons
- Not the most durable urethane cover
| Construction | 5-piece |
| Cover | Urethane |
| Dimples | 322 |
| Feel | Soft |
| Flight | High |
| Long game spin | Low |
| Short game spin | High |
Colour options| "bauer-product-card"> | |
| Alternative models | TP5 Pix; TP5 Stripe; TP5 MySymbol |
- New seamless tour flight dimple pattern
- Speed-layer system
- High-flex material
As for why he changed his gear in such a high-profile event, he explained: “I thought, I’ve got four rounds this week, no cut, may as well give it a go and see how it goes.
“I played 18 at Pebble on Tuesday, played 18 at Cypress [Point on Wednesday] with it and obviously played [at Spyglass Hill on Thursday].
“It’s been really, really good.”
McIlroy will tee up at Oakmont on the back of six straight top-10 finishes at the US Open, including being runner-up both last year and in 2023. Will his new (old) driver help him go one better in 2025? We’ll soon find out.
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Rory McIlroy is preparing to win his second US Open title at Oakmont.
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Rory McIlroy is back with his TaylorMade Qi10 driver at the US Open.
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