Rory McIlroy said he did not feel fully comfortable with his game during his season-opening week at the Dubai Invitational, even though he ended the tournament with a strong finish.
The world No. 2 opened with a 66 but followed it with a difficult second round that included several mistakes off the tee. He recovered over the weekend with two steady rounds of 68s, finishing tied for third, two shots behind winner Nacho Elvira.
On Sunday, McIlroy briefly moved into contention after making five birdies in a row. A late bogey, however, stopped his run. Reflecting on the final round, McIlroy said
“I didn’t get off to the greatest of starts. I wasn’t really focused on winning the tournament. I was just trying to piece it together and make some good swings and try to hit a few more fairways, which I did for the most part. Would have been nice to hit the fairway at the last to give myself a chance for birdie there.”
He explained that the week was more about learning than winning.
“Overall, it was a good first week back. I felt like I learned a lot of stuff about my game. I wasn’t very sharp, but hopefully I’m a little bit sharper going into next week than I was going into this week,” McIlroy said.
McIlroy also revealed that he is still adjusting to new equipment. He began the season with a different set of TaylorMade irons and a new ball, which he started testing late last year.
Rory McIlroy explains why he changed his irons
Rory McIlroy has also been testing a few changes in his equipment as he looks for more consistency. While he kept his P760 4-iron in the bag, he switched to TaylorMade’s P7CB irons from the 5-iron through the 9-iron, the same setup he briefly used during the Australian Open last month.
He said the change came after noticing small misses were costing him more distance than he liked.
“If there’s help to be had, I’ll definitely take it,” McIlroy said. “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.”
A TaylorMade representative later told Golf.com’s Jack Hirsch that the goal behind the switch was to give McIlroy more forgiveness and better distance control.
McIlroy first put the new irons in play during his trip to Australia, using only the 5- and 6-irons early on. He then tested them fully during last week’s TGL opener. He said the feel was noticeably better, especially on firmer ground.
“With that firm turf down there, I felt like those irons were going through the turf better than the blades,” McIlroy said. “I practiced at home with them since. … I like what I’ve seen at home, and today was a good test for it, and I felt like everything was pretty good.”
He also made a change to his golf ball, putting the 2026 version of the TP5 into play in Dubai.
Here’s a look at McIlroy’s current bag setup:
- Driver: TaylorMade Qi4D (9 degrees)
- Fairway woods: TaylorMade Qi4D (3, 15 degrees; 5, 18 degrees)
- Irons: TaylorMade P760 (4), TaylorMade P7CB (5-9)
- Wedges: TaylorMade MG5 (46, 50, 54 and 60 degrees)
- Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour X
- Ball: TaylorMade TP5