‘It will be in the bag this week’ – Rory McIlroy pleased with new prototype 4-iron

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Rory McIlroy

Rory McIlroy has been pleased with the performance of a new prototype four-iron from TaylorMade.

The iron is still in its development phase for now, but McIlroy was delighted with the performance.

McIlroy had been using a TaylorMade P760 4-iron with his 5-9 in another pro-specced prototype iron from TaylorMade.

The Northern Irishman postulated that the new iron could be a replacement for TaylorMade’s P7MC irons.

“Yeah, I went out, spent a couple of days with the TaylorMade guys at the Kingdom. Yeah, they just produced these couple of proto, I guess they are the MC replacements maybe,” McIlroy told GolfWRX.

“They performed really well. It’s just as fast as the 760 that I was using. Launch is a little higher actually, which was surprising, and it’s just sometimes I felt like when I hit my 5-iron in the blade and then the 4-iron in the 760 it was such a different feel. To go from a 5-iron now to that 4-iron, it feels a little closer to what I feel in the 5-iron. So just a little bit more responsive, but I didn’t lose any performance from it, which is great. Yeah, it will be in the bag this week.”

McIlroy has done some equipment overhauling at the outset of the season, bringing a fresh driver design to the tees in 2024.

The Ulsterman gave the world a first viewing of the new Qi10 LS driver, putting it into his bag for the final outing of his 2023 season at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

McIlroy had started 2023 with the Stealth Plus driver that he’d enjoyed so much success with in 2022 before switching to the Stealth 2 Plus during the Genesis Invitational. With his new Qi10 driver, he has lofted up from 7.5º to 9º.

McIlroy also switched to TaylorMade’s current Qi10 fairway woods for 2024, upgrading from his Stealth Plus models, which had served him well.

While McIlroy’s driving ability gets the most attention, his performance off the course with a fairway wood is unparalleled.

Rory’s 3-wood is designed to maximize distance and highlight his game’s strength: striking the ball far further than everyone else. When you go from his 3-wood to his longest iron, you’ll notice a significant difference in distance. Thus McIlroy also uses a 5-wood from the same fairway wood family.

“It’s shorter than a standard 5-wood and has a slightly stronger loft at 17.5°. It’s like watching an artist at work, seeing all the different shots he can hit with it,” TaylorMade’s Senior Tour Rep, Adrian Rietveld said.

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