MacIntyre Trusts 10-year-Old Fairway Wood In His Quest For The Open Championship

In the world of major championship golf, the best in the world chase victory using everything at their disposal, including their equipment and team around them, to chase the fractional gains in performance that could potentially see them finish the week at the top of the leaderboard.

While the majority of Robert MacIntyre’s bag is full of the latest equipment, it appears the Scot is once again sticking with his trusty 10-year-old TaylorMade Aeroburner fairway wood in a bid to claim his first major championship this week at Royal Portrush.

The sight of the white-crowned AeroBurner on the television this week, a relic from 2015, is a true blast from the past. But for MacIntyre, this isn’t just a case of nostalgia, it’s a necessity. This is the club he turns to under pressure, the "go-to" in his bag that has earned its place through years of reliable service and has been there for his maiden wins on both the DP World Tour and PGA Tour.

The decision to keep this club in the bag despite now being a decade old shows the trust he has in that club and its ability to hit the shots he requires from it. As a Titleist staff player, his bag is otherwise a showcase of the brand's more current product, albeit still not the latest models. I think this truly shows how attached MacIntyre gets to his clubs and his reluctance to change unless there are some serious gains to be had.

Despite being under contract with Titleist, players are usually required to game 13 clubs from said brand, leaving one slot free for clubs that are hard to part from - the Aeroburner being the Oban native's choice.

This speaks volumes about the unique bond between player and club, a bond that tour reps and R&D departments can only hope to replicate as they release product each year.

MacIntyre’s choice flies in the face of modern tour trends. A look at the fairway wood count on any given week on the PGA or DP World Tour reveals a sea of current-generation models.

TaylorMade are known for often dominating the fairway wood count, especially for non-contracted players on tour but even last year’s Qi10 range still seems to be the choice of many golfers over the newer Qi35 model. While other clubs from leading manufacturers dominate the statistics, promising more ball speed, forgiveness, and customisation than ever before, why stick with the old-timer?

For MacIntyre, the answer lies in confidence and a predictable ball flight. He has spent so much time, hitting so many balls with that club, that he knows exactly how the AeroBurner will perform from all sorts of lies and different conditions. How the ball will launch from a tight lie, and the precise shape of shot he can hit when a hole, or the tournament, is on the line, as he’s demonstrated thus far through the first couple of rounds at The Open this week.

The Aeroburner fairway wood featured the same Speed slot behind the face that is still used in the most current TaylorMade fairway woods, so despite its age and titanium structure over carbon, some of the technology remains the same. At a venue like Royal Portrush, where accuracy from the tee on demanding par-4s and par-5s is paramount, having a "fairway finder" you trust implicitly can be the difference between making a birdie or dropping multiple shots a hole.

As he navigates the dunes and challenges of this historic and popular links course, every player will be leaning on their preparation and skill. But for Robert MacIntyre, a significant part of his strategy rests on the familiar, decade-old face of a club that has stood the test of time and that he clearly trusts.

In the quest for his first major championship victory and one that requires complete shot-making capabilities, MacIntyre is leaning on a trusted old friend to help him try and land the biggest victory of his career.