Rory McIlroy stunned the golf world this week when he showed up to the DP World Tour's year-opening Dubai Invitational with a new set of irons.
Gone were the TaylorMade Rors Proto blade-style irons that have been in his bag for years, and in their place was a set of cavity-back irons built just for him.
Golf fans were wondering if something was wrong and why McIlroy was going to the dark side and joining most of the rest of us with a more forgiving set of irons. Turns out, McIlroy was looking for the same things in a new set of irons that the millions of us who struggle to play the game are also seeking.
"If there's help to be had, I'll definitely take it," McIlroy said to the DP World Tour after Thursday's opening round in the United Arab Emirates. "Yeah, I've been thinking about it for a while."
The Masters champion has been contemplating the switch going back toward the tail end of 2025, when McIlroy won yet another Race to Dubai title. McIlroy, nearly 37 years old, realized the ball wasn't flying as far as he was used to seeing.
"And even in Dubai at the end of last year, I hit a couple of 5-irons that I mis-struck slightly, and instead of it maybe coming up 5 or 7 yards short, it was coming up more like 10 to 15 yards short.
"So I asked the guys at TaylorMade to build me up a set. And I actually went down to Australia with them, and with that firm turf down there, I felt like those irons were going through the turf better than the blades. And I practised with them at home since."
McIlroy has also put TaylorMade's new TP5 ball for 2026 into play, and he's happy with that equipment change.
Over the last several years, McIlroy has struggled to find a driver that he really loves from week to week, but that doesn't seem to be the issue right now. If anything, he might be a slightly crisper iron player now that he has a little more forgiveness in his irons.
