Rory McIlroy debuts new woods, putter in season-opener

Last year, Rory McIlroy accomplished something he’d never done before in his decorated career. His victory at the Hero Dubai Desert Classic marked the first time he won his first event of a calendar year.

A year later, McIlroy is off to a good start to his 2024 debut. He shot 9-under 62 to lead after the first round of the Dubai Invitational, which comes a week before his title defense at the Desert Classic. Like many players, McIlroy is starting the new year with new clubs in the bag. He changed both the shortest and longest clubs in his bag before starting the new season. Below are more details on the changes.

McIlroy began using TaylorMade’s new Qi10 line at the end of last year, debuting the new driver at the DP World Tour Championship, where he won his fifth Race to Dubai title. This week, McIlroy switched from the Qi10’s LS (which stands for low spin) model to a 10-degree Qi10 with a hosel set one click lower. He also is debuting two Qi10 fairway woods this week, a 15-degree 3-wood and 18-degree 5-wood.

The Qi10’s bigger and more forgiving head allowed him to switch back into Fujikura Ventus Black shafts, and he was able to add some length back into his driver shaft (which is now 45 inches long). According to TaylorMade, he switched into the new fairway woods because of the optimal spin numbers they produced and because of the larger, more forgiving heads.

McIlroy also is debuting a Spider Tour X putter this week. TaylorMade released the latest edition of its popular Spider line last fall, and McIlroy first saw the club at the BMW Championship. He did in-depth testing with the club after his final tournament of 2023, the DP World Tour Championship. The putter is similar to his previous Spider gamer, but it is one piece with an aluminum sole plate and TSS weights in the sole instead of having weights in the wings like his previous model. He also liked the darker finish of the club, TaylorMade said.

Here is McIlroy’s full what’s in the bag info this week:

Driver: TaylorMade Qi10 9.0 driver (set one click toward lower)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6X

3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10 (15 degrees)
Shaft: Ventus Black 8X

5-wood: Qi10 18.0 5-wood
Shaft: Ventus Black 9X

Irons: TaylorMade P760 4-iron; TaylorMade Rors Proto 5-9

Wedges: TaylorMade MG4 46 degrees (standard bounce), MG4 50 degrees (standard bounce), 54 degrees (standard bounce), 60 degrees (low bounce)

Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour X

Ball: TaylorMade TP5x