Rory McIlroy has made major changes to his bag, now playing a new set of irons. He explains the reasons behind his switch.
Rory McIlroy surprised the golf world at the start of the year during the TGL when he debuted a completely new set of irons, marking the first time he has changed irons since 2017. After making some changes to his bag in autumn 2025, only his putter and 4-iron remain from his triumph at Augusta. At his season start in Dubai, he now spoke about the reasons and thoughts behind his switch.
‘If There’s Help, I’ll Definitely Take It’
The Northern Irishman’s shots are usually near perfect and even when Rory McIlroy mishits a ball, those shots would still be the best many golfers will ever play. But at the professional level, centimeters decide birdie or par, win or loss, and these small differences have now led McIlroy to change clubs.
‘If there’s help to be had, I’ll definitely take it. I’ve thought about it for a while now,’ McIlroy said Thursday after his opening 66 at the Dubai Invitational. ‘Even late last year in Dubai, I hit some 5-irons slightly off, and instead of being maybe five or seven yards short, they were more like 10 to 15 yards short.’
TaylorMade’s Custom Irons for Rory McIlroy
TaylorMade crafted him a custom set of P7CBs with a similar leading edge to his P760 long irons—additionally to his regular 4-iron, he also has P760 2- and 3-irons in utility versions. The 4-, 5-, and 6-irons of this set were used last month during the opening rounds of the Australian Open, and he liked them so much that he also used the 7-, 8-, and 9-irons over the weekend. ‘On the firm turf down there, I felt these irons went through the turf better than blades,’ he said. ‘And since then, I’ve been practicing with them at home.’
McIlroy is also playing with a new, yet unreleased 2026 TaylorMade TP Proto golf ball. He debuted the new setup last week, kept his P760 4-iron, and officially played the irons in Dubai this week.
The Trend Towards More Forgiving Clubs
The switch to the more forgiving P7CB irons continues a trend increasingly observed at the highest level of golf. More and more pros are trading blades for more forgiving cavity-backs. Thanks to new technology, these clubs do not sacrifice distance despite their forgiving design and retain spin control even on imperfect strikes. While the new clubs might not necessarily add strokes to McIlroy’s game, they help reduce errors, which can be the crucial difference between winning and losing.