Why Has Rory McIlroy Switched Back To His Old Irons Ahead Of The AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am?
Ahead of the first Signature Event of 2026, World No.2 McIlroy has returned to a trusty friend prior to this week in Pebble Beach, moving back to his blade irons
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Rory McIlroy made notable equipment changes throughout 2025 and, prior to a competitive shot being struck in 2026, he had already opted to change his iron set-up.
Swapping blade irons for cavity backs for the first time in his career, McIlroy was using the TaylorMade P7CBs for his run of tournaments in Dubai but, at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the defending champion has revealed he is back in his TaylorMade Rors Proto blades.
McIlroy had been using a full set of TaylorMade P7CBs at the beginning of 2026
Speaking ahead of the PGA Tour's first Signature Event of the year, McIlroy explained how his golf is shaping up ahead of a busy run of events, with the 36-year-old stating: "It feels pretty good.
"I had a strong finish to the season last year. Played well in the Middle East. Went on to Australia, which was a great experience. Sort of messed around with some different iron set-ups and sort of messed around with like a different ball and a few equipment changes.
"That experiment's over, back to the trusty irons that I've played basically my whole career."
The five-time Major's Rors Protos had been in the bag since 2017
First teased at the Crown Australian Open in December, McIlroy was spotted with the TaylorMade P7CBs in his bag from 4-iron to 6-iron, as the Rors Protos remained in the set-up when it came to the lower order.
Returning in 2026 at the TGL match-up between Boston Common Golf Club and Los Angeles Golf Club, McIlroy was then spotted in a full set-up of P7CBs, which remained for the Dubai Invitational and Dubai Desert Classic, where he finished T3rd and T33rd.
Now, ahead of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, where McIlroy is paired alongside Ryan Fox, he is back in the Rors Protos, a model that has been in his bag since the middle of 2017.
"I felt like the cavity backs just had a little bit of a right bias in them," explained McIlroy, who claimed a two stroke victory at this event last year.
McIlroy defends his AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am title after victory last year
"So whatever way the weight of the head was or, whether it was the blade length, I would hit shots... I'd make swings that I feel like I'd make with my blades that would be a very neutral ball flight and then with the cavity backs they would just like start to tail off to the right.
"I felt like in a way it's not a bad thing because I don't like seeing the ball go left. So it made me feel like I could fully release my iron shots, which is great in theory and great in practice, but then once you get on the course with a card in your hand, for so many years I'm used to feeling that like held-off position through impact and then to go from that to trying to release it, it just was a different feel, especially under pressure or in the heat of competition."
One change that has become permanent, though, is a change of golf ball, which actually happened at last year's AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and once again at this year's Dubai Invitational.
In 2025, McIlroy opted to change from the TaylorMade TP5x to the TaylorMade TP5, 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.
At the Dubai Invitational, McIlroy revealed he had swapped to the 2026 version of the TP5, with that model remaining in his set-up ever since.
"The ball's great. I mean, the ball, it launches pretty consistently a degree lower with every club through the bag. Very, very similar spin rate. I maybe picked up a touch of speed with the longer clubs, with the driver.
"It's a slightly... I think it's a slightly higher compression than previous TP5s so I'm getting a little bit more speed off the sort of driver and the woods."
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