Rory McIlroy returns to old irons, wins Wells Fargo Championship
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CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA - MAY 08: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays his second shot on the 14th hole during the third round of the 2021 Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club on May 08, 2021 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Rory McIlroy hit an impressive 75% of greens in regulation during his winning week at the Wells Fargo Championship, picking up more than five strokes on the field in Strokes Gained: Approach en route to his 19th PGA TOUR victory.
McIlroy had some old tools in his box at Quail Hollow that helped him hoist a PGA TOUR trophy for the first time in 18 months.
McIlroy returned to his 2017 Rors Proto TaylorMade irons — a prototype version of TaylorMade’s P730 irons, which were released in August 2017. The two-time FedExCup champ played the irons after signing with TaylorMade in May 2017.
To provide a bit of a refresher, the Rors Protos were part of the custom series of irons made for a number of prominent TaylorMade staff players, including Dustin Johnson and (at the time) Justin Rose. They all featured slightly tweaked profiles of the TaylorMade P730 blade with either a unique grind or blade length profile.
McIlroy began this season with TaylorMade P7MB irons before switching to a combo set of the P760 (3- and 4-iron) and P730 (5-PW).
While neither McIlroy nor TaylorMade have commented on the return to the irons, McIlroy reportedly was looking for an iron with shorter blade length, less offset, and a thinner topline, similar to the Titleist 660 MB irons and Nike VR Pro Blades he played earlier in his career.