Rory McIlroy’s famous 2-iron shot memorialized at The Renaissance Club

After his heartbreak at Pinehurst, Rory McIlroy returns to the PGA TOUR this week to defend his title at the Genesis Scottish Open, a title he won with one of the most memorable finishes of his career.

In case you forgot, McIlroy closed the tournament with back-to-back birdies to snatch the title from Scotland’s own Robert MacIntyre. McIlroy’s final approach was a perfectly executed 2-iron stinger to 11 feet, a putt he holed for a one-shot victory.

The shot was so good, in fact, that The Renaissance Club in Scotland commemorated it with a plaque. And McIlroy was happy to recall one of the best shots of his career in his Wednesday press conference. He had not yet seen the plaque but had seen photos posted online.

“To hit two iron shots like that and to hole the putts what I needed to, yeah, it was awesome,” McIlroy said. “Sort of I felt in some ways bad that it came at the expense of Bob but at the same time it was amazing to win a tournament that I had never won before. Good memories and good to be back.”

Looking back, the famous shot actually almost never happened at all … at least, not with a 2-iron.

McIlroy has a 5-wood in the bag most weeks instead of a 2-iron. But in preparation for last year’s trip to Scotland, McIlroy dove into his stash of backup clubs in his garage and pulled out a 17-degree TaylorMade P760 2-iron. The low-flying iron was meant to replace his higher-flying 5-wood, giving him the option to hit the ball a bit lower and with less spin to pierce the Scottish winds.

Obviously, that decision worked to perfection.

McIlroy, who uses “Rors Proto” muscleback blades in his mid-to-short irons, spoke previously about the TaylorMade P760 model iron heads, and what he liked about using them in his long irons:

“(The TaylorMade P760 has) a little bit of a shorter blade length,” he said. “Sometimes the newer models, whether it be the 770 or the 790, it's a bit of a longer blade length, and I feel like the toe just wants to close over on me a little. Instead of having to mess around with weighting or different shafts or anything, I've played those 760s before, and they've worked really well. It was just an easy transition.”

Throughout most of 2024, McIlroy has now been using a TaylorMade “Proto” 4-iron, to go along with a Qi10 5 wood, and his familiar set of Rors Proto blade irons (5-9).

As of Wednesday, McIlroy has the same P760 2-iron in his bag this week. And for good reason. It helped author one of the best shots of his career. That's enough to earn a return trip to Scotland.