As always, the driver was a weapon for the four-time major champion. McIlroy ranked first in strokes gained/off the tee, picking up more than six shots on the field with his TaylorMade Qi10 driver.
Experience paid off for the Irish duo in capturing the PGA Tour’s lone official teams event.
Putting coach Bill Smittle encourages golfers to test their performance with both blade and mallet putters to see if they are right for them, but generally, players who struggle with distance control or alignment are good candidates for mallet putters.
McIlroy took to social media overnight to explain, in his estimation, why all the fuss is unnecessary.
McIlroy, who is competing in the DP World Tour’s season finale in Dubai this week, was seen using TaylorMade’s Qi10 LS driver at Jumeirah Golf Estates on Tuesday.
It all seems a bit disconcerting in the middle of an event that has a $US20 million purse.
The 2-iron McIlroy added to his bag is TaylorMade’s P•760 bent to 17 degrees with a Project X HZRDUS Black 6.5 graphite shaft.
McIlroy’s irons are TaylorMade’s “Rors Proto” muscleback blades based off the company’s P730 irons, and he picked up nearly four shots on the field with his approach shots.
At East Lake, McIlroy ranked second in strokes gained/putting and led the field in putts per green in regulation.
McIlroy carries just two wedges aside from his pitching wedge, a 54 and 60-degree but he used them well enough to rank second for the week in scrambling.
A 20-time PGA Tour winner and four-time Major champion, McIlroy has seven wins since joining TaylorMade in 2017.
Adam Scott says a golf equipment change felt silly when playing partner Rory McIlroy drove his way to the top of the Arnold Palmer Invitational leaderboard in Florida.
After a triple-bogey 7 on the par-4 17th in the opening round, McIlroy went 40 consecutive holes without a bogey, going 18-under par over that stretch.
Though their gear has remained mostly unchanged since the last time they teed it up for real at the Players, there have been some switches, most notably Fowler’s new Cobra prototype MB irons.
As is often the case with McIlroy, he used his driver as an effective weapon.
It wasn’t just the long game that served McIlroy well in his second run to a FedEx Cup title.
As his final tune-up before next week’s US Open at Pebble Beach, McIlroy had to be heartened by the fact each aspect of his game was clicking in Canada.
When it’s working there are few better with the driver than McIlroy, who ranked third in strokes gained/off the tee and first in strokes gained/ tee to green for the week.
Using a TaylorMade TP Soto blade, McIlroy – who has been no better than 125th in strokes gained/putting in each of the last three seasons – posted a tournament-leading 2.503 strokes gained mark at Bay Hill
The four-time Major champion will use the Jason Day-inspired red TaylorMade Spider Tour at Erin Hills Golf Club
After extensive testing of virtually every major brand while exploring offers from multiple equipment companies, McIlroy has entered into a “long-term” contract with TaylorMade.
An equipment free-agent since Nike exited the equipment business last August, McIlroy has enjoyed his freedom to test product.