Every Gear Change Rory McIlroy Made During His Historic 2025 Season

To say Rory McIlroy has had an unbelievable 2025 is somewhat of an understatement...

Claiming the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Players Championship at the start of the year, the main highlight came at The Masters where, after numerous close calls, he finally secured a first Green Jacket to become the sixth golfer in history to complete the Career Grand Slam.

As well as winning his home event, the Amgen Irish Open, there has also been an away Ryder Cup victory in New York and, as of writing, McIlroy is likely to secure a seventh Harry Vardon Trophy on the DP World Tour.

Obviously, there are several reasons for his success throughout the year, with one of those being down to some pretty significant equipment changes that include the golf ball, driver and wedges.

In fact, for a player who likes to keep their set-up as consistent as possible, there's been some big changes in the grand scheme of things, as McIlroy continued to add to his incredible resume...

Take a look at the full list of equipment changes the 36-year-old has made throughout 2025 below...

January 2025 - Ball Change

Arguably the most impactful and important change to McIroy's bag came at the start of the year, when he opted to change from the TaylorMade TP5x to the TaylorMade TP5.

Shortly after the change, McIlroy won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, with the reason for the swap being down to the fact that his launch angle on full iron shots was a degree lower, but with the same spin rates and ball speed of his original TP5x.

Explaining the move, McIlroy stated: "I sort of stumbled upon it.. I just started to hit some chips with the TP5 instead of the TP5x and I really loved how I felt.

"I hadn’t really tested the 2024 TP5, and I loved how it was reacting around the greens. And then I started hitting some like 60, 70-yard shots with it and it was coming off with a much lower launch, but spinnier.

"Then I just did some testing with it and compared it to the TP5x. I used a 2019 TP5 and the difference between a 2019 TP5 and a 2019 TP5x was a lot in terms of the spin rates and the launch angles. This seems to launch probably a degree lower for me, but the spin rate’s very, very similar, which I really like."

March 2025 - Driver Swap And Wedge Gapping

Moving to new equipment in the golf ball department, another story for most of 2025 was McIlroy opting to stick with the TaylorMade Qi10 driver and fairway woods, models that have been in the bag since the start of last year.

TaylorMade released the Qi35 range at the beginning of 2025 and, initially, McIlroy didn't use it. That all changed at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, though, where he was spotted with it in the bag for the Signature Event.

The move didn't last long, as he had the new woods in the bag for the first three rounds, eventually moving back to Qi10 for the Sunday.

That wasn't the only big change in his set-up, as the new golf ball meant he swapped out the lofts in his wedges, changing them considerably at the start of March.

Previously, his wedge set-up went 46.5°, 50°, 54° and 60°, but he changed to a set-up of 48°, 54° and 60°. Since then, he has used his original four wedge set-up more frequently.

May 2025 - Driver Becomes Non-Conforming

Prior to the PGA Championship, McIlroy was forced into a driver change after his club was deemed non-conforming by the USGA on the Tuesday of the championship.

He wasn't the only one, as Scottie Scheffler's driver was also non-conforming, meaning the World No.1 and No.2 were forced into changes just days out from the second Major of the season.

June 2025 - New Driver Makes An Appearance Again

Following the PGA Championship, McIlroy's next event was the RBC Canadian Open, with the question surrounding which driver would be in the bag after a poor showing at Quail Hollow.

Conducting vigorous driver testing after the Major, McIlroy arrived at TPC Toronto with the Qi35 back in the bag, and with the Qi35 three-wood also featuring.

One slight difference was that the driver was built roughly an inch shorter than his previous gamer at 44 5/8 inches.

In Canada, though, he struggled as uncharacteristic rounds of 71 and 78 meant a nine-over-par total and a missed cut. The following week, at the US Open, he was back in the Qi10.

September 2025 - Change To MG5 Wedges

A change not involving the driver or golf ball came in September as, at the Amgen Irish Open, McIlroy was spotted with new wedges in the bag.

Moving from the TaylorMade MG4 to the MG5, the timing caused some concern, as the 36-year-old was teeing it up at the Ryder Cup in a few weeks time.

McIlroy, though, extinguished any worries as he went on to claim an enthralling victory at The K Club, eagling the 18th to force a play-off with Joakim Lagergren, who he defeated with a birdie at the third play-off hole.

In terms of the wedges, one notable change included his lob wedge, which was bent from 60° to 61°. His remaining MG5 wedges stayed the same, loft-wise, remaining at 46°, 50° and 54°.

November 2025 - TaylorMade Qi4D Driver Appears In The Bag

Rounding out the final equipment change of the season, and it's only fitting it involves the driver once again, as McIlroy put the new TaylorMade Qi4D driver and fairway woods into play at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

The new models hit the USGA's conforming list on the Sunday evening prior to Abu Dhabi, with both McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood among the TaylorMade staffers using them.

They remained in the bag for the DP World Tour Championship the week after and, in a practice round at that event, McIlroy was spotted saying "it's really good," showing that, this time around, the Qi4D could be remaining in the bag for the foreseeable future.