Rory McIlroy’s surprising device reversal Sunday? He explained

Rory McIlroy moved into the new Taylormade QI35 wood in Bay Hill last week.

Then, on Sunday, he changed back.

After his first three rounds put him in the top 10, but beyond the realistic debate at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, McIlroy appeared in Arnie’s position, with the same QI10 driver and Fairway Wood Setup (he’s been in the past year).

This comes after McIlroy’s praise for his new QI35 wood setup earlier this week, including over 300 wood he said, for over 300 yards.

So, what happened?

McIlroy explained at his 72-year-old at the age of 72 that he ranked 15th in his tie.

“A little bit back to where I’m happy with it,” he said. “I tried the new woods in the first three days, but it didn’t work exactly the way I wanted it to. So, yes, I’m back to my old stuff today. The stroke I led was off the pebble and the T-shirt from Pebble and Torrey, so the change was a good idea [laughs]. Then, like yesterday, I lost my strokes from the tee, the first time in a long time I did it. ”

McIlroy usually dominates the stats every week and a week, but at Bay Hill, he was pretty average (relatively speaking) in the first two rounds, when he scored 1.3 on the court. McIlroy led the tour in statistics, and in one round he had nearly the same number of strokes in Bay Hill.

Then on Saturday, he actually lost the game (although only 0.032) for the first time since last year’s Fedex St. Jude Championship, when he finished the T68, less than half the fairway a week.

McIlroy actually made the situation worse on Sunday, losing two-tenths of stroke when he hit only five fairways on Sunday, but it was obvious that he had a high level of comfort with the QI10 driver because he couldn’t replicate it yet. Afterwards, he confirmed that he might put the Qi10 in a bag through the Master.

The whole episode tells us a few things, and one of them is not something new driver has.

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First, professionals are often motivated to change their money-making tools. Please note how I say “motivation” rather than “ask” or even “encourage”. Taylormade Tour Reps will never force McIlroy to swap clubs. If McIlroy thinks he will see performance benefits from turning into something new, he won’t even try.

“It’s advantageous, it’s a blessing and a curse, and we have to go through these 12-month club cycles,” he said.

McIlroy said he just didn’t have enough time to really adapt to the new setting, which gave us a second point: competitive golf and all other golf are two very different things.

Even for a professional golfer, playing a club at home or within range doesn’t even play games in the game, let alone with a $20 million wallet. McIlroy and anyone know this. Scottie Scheffler is now going through the same thing.

“I might just not have enough time,” McIlroy said. “And it’s completely different, you know, it can look good on track and field athletes and it looks good at home at a bear club or golf course, but once you’re out here in those conditions, it does show up and it’s not ready yet.”

So for now, McIlroy will at least move on with his QI10 driver. But with the players winning this week, golf begins what is called a “champion season.” McIlroy has played Valero’s Valero Dexas open in the face of the Masters and may play the legacy of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RBC) right after the game – also the Zurich Classic, where he and Shane Lowry are the defending champions.

He had only one week off before the New Orleans Truist in Philadelphia and the PGA Championship in Charlotte.

So it’s safe to say that if he wants to get new drivers into the race, he will have to be happy with it quickly when we hit the PGA Tour meat.

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