Rory McIlroy’s Pebble Beach win fuelled by haphazard TaylorMade ball switch in practice

Rory McIlroy tosses a golf ball

The week before the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am Rory McIlroy was still using a TaylorMade TP5x ball.

Then he started ‘messing around’ on the range in practice, liked what he felt in the TP5 ball and now he’s a winner at Pebble Beach.

With victory in California, the 35-year-old took his tally of PGA Tour wins to 27 and became the first player in 20 years – Phil Mickelson was the last – to reach that figure.

The nature of the victory was something else.

McIlroy finished at 21-under to edge out his good friend Shane Lowry by two shots and he did it with a mixture of brute force, shotmaking, common sense and a hot putter.

Rory McIlroy wins at Pebble Beach 2025

At the heart of it all was the new TaylorMade TP5 ball.

McIlroy has played a TaylorMade ball since signing up in 2017. He did play the 2019 version for several years before making the move to the then new TP5x early on in 2024.

Behind the move was more ball yardage with the Qi10 driver and more ball speed with the irons. He achieved four wins and a sixth Race to Dubai title and came within a whisker of adding the US Open to his Major CV.

In the off-season he has worked on his swing and now there is a new ball in the bag, thanks to some practice at Michael Jordan’s course.

“I sort of stumbled upon it. I was messing around at the Grove, this has got to be like Thursday last week. I just started to hit some chips with the TP5 instead of the TP5x and I really loved how it felt,” he explained.

“And 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 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.”

Rory McIlroy on the range at Pebble Beach

McIlroy obviously doesn’t struggle for distance with the driver – as evidenced again by his ridiculous 339-yard drive at the 14th on Sunday to leave a 7-iron in to the par 5 – but there is no compromise even though the TP5 is a softer ball.

And he even got to try it out at one of the most iconic courses on the planet.

“It doesn’t seem to lose any speed with the driver either, even though it’s a lower compression golf ball. I thought I’ve got four rounds this week, no cut, may as well give it a go and see how it goes. I played 18 at Pebble on Tuesday, played 18 at Cypress and obviously played here and it’s been really, really good.”

On top of the Signature Event win McIlroy also bagged himself a hole-in-one in Thursday’s opening round at Spyglass Hill.

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