Rory McIlroy makes shock change as he gears up for US Open – but it doesn’t look like it will last
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Rory McIlroy’s TaylorMade setup has had yet another tweak as he gets ready for Oakmont’s toughest test. But is he already having regrets?
Rory McIlroy has made a significant change to his equipment setup as he plans his assault on winning a long overdue second US Open title.
The Northern Irishman has put the brand’s Qi35 driver and 3-wood back in play having trialled them briefly at the Arnold Palmer Invitational before opting to keep the Qi10 models in the bag for the Augusta showpiece.
But now he has returned to TaylorMade’s newest version, just three weeks after the drama at the PGA Championship which led to McIlroy having to take his gamer out of play after the USGA ruled it to be non-conforming.
But he teed up at the RBC Canadian Open – the World No.2’s final preparation before heading to Oakmont – with the tour-only ‘Dot’ version of the Qi35, which features the new Ventus Black VeloCore+ 6x shaft.
What’s interesting, though, is that his shaft measures 44⅝ inches – almost an inch shorter than his previous setup.
After the first round at TPC Toronto, McIlroy said: “It was my first outing with my new driver, and I felt like it went pretty well.
“I hit some drives that I like, so that was encouraging. 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 uses a TaylorMade Qi35 driver with a Fujikura Ventus VeloCore+ Black 6X shaft
But after missing the cut by seven shots, McIlroy – who currently averages 319.3 yards to sit third in Driving Distance on the PGA Tour so far this season, but is 170th in Driving Accuracy – will need to put in some hours over the coming days if he is to have any hope of challenging at Oakmont.
“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.”
Whether or not we see the Qi35 in McIlroy’s bag at the third major of the year remains to be seen.
“I went back to a 44-inch driver this week to try to get something that was a little more in control and could try to get something a bit more in play,” he explained. “But if I’m going to miss fairways, I’d rather have the ball speed and miss the fairway than not.
“I was saying to Harry going down the last, ‘This is the second time this year I’ve tried the new version, and it hasn’t quite worked out for me.’ So I’d say I’ll be testing quite a few drivers over the weekend.”
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.”
As for why he change 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.”
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
McIlroy will head to Oakmont on the back of six straight top-10 finishes at the US Open, including being runner-up both last year and in 2023.
