Rory McIlroy makes this equipment switch for first time in his career
3 Min Read
Rory McIlroy on how experience shapes world's best players
Written by Alistair Cameron
Rory McIlroy starts his season in Dubai; it’s no real change to how he’s handled each season for the past few years. But what has changed – his equipment.
For the first time in his illustrious career, the 29-time PGA TOUR winner has opted not to start a tournament with blade irons, the pinnacle of professional golf equipment, and instead is introducing a set of cavity-back irons.
“I’m actually trying a new set of irons, which I’m very excited about at the minute,” McIlroy said during a video posted by his TGL team, Boston Common Golf, earlier this month.
Starting his career back at the Betfred British Masters, a young and slightly more sturdy McIlroy, rocked up with a set of Titleist 660 blade irons, thinner than the knives in your best silverware set, and, since then, has either used variations of Titleist, Nike and TaylorMade blade irons in his setup. From time to time, he’s added a more forgiving longer-iron, but now, as McIlroy embarks on his 19th year as a professional, he’s gone full cavity.
Rory McIlroy during the 2007 British Masters, using Titleist 660 blades. (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)
As he embarks on another season on the DP World Tour and looks to win his eighth Race to Dubai title, McIlroy is equipped now with 5- through 9-iron in TaylorMade’s P7CB lineup at the Dubai Invitational at Dubai Creek Resort, ditching the RORS Protos, a muscle-back made specifically for the career Grand Slam winner.
TaylorMade told PGATOUR.COM that the swap came down to more forgiveness and “was the main reason why he even explored CBs.”
A detailed photograph of the clubs used by Rory McIlroy showing his new style of TaylorMade P7CB irons prior to the Dubai Invitational. (David Cannon/Getty Images)
TaylorMade also added that, “he felt like on mishits, a few were coming up very short and wanted to explore something with a cavity. We made him a set of CBs, and he immediately noticed that forgiveness with improved distance control. Maintained spin consistency and they even held the line a little bit better."
The experiment started in his last start of 2025 at the Crown Australian Open, where McIlroy looked set on adding just a 4- through 6-iron in the cavity back make to help with the longer irons, but ended up with a full set for the weekend at Royal Melbourne GC and finished the week +0.59 in Strokes Gained: Approach. He also went on to use them in Boston Common's Season 2 TGL debut, and now is taking them from the big screen to the course again.
The change to a full set of cavity backs comes with some unique quirks just for McIlroy. For those looking closely, the P7CBs in McIlory’s bag this week at the Dubai Invitational feature a custom leading edge, designed to mirror that of the P760 long irons, which he has used for a few years now. That, and less offset on the irons, compared to a standard set, are created to help stop McIlroy from digging the club at impact and turf ground interaction.
The change in irons comes with McIlroy also moving into TaylorMade’s Qi4D driver, 3-wood and 5-wood to end 2025. A significant jump for the Northern Irishman, who stayed mostly in TaylorMade’s Qi10 line rather than moving into the last generation Qi35.
