When you are a generational driver of the ball like Rory McIlroy, then you tend not to hear as much about his iron play. A quick overview of the Strokes Gained: Approach The Green stats from the 2024 PGA Tour sees him down in 52nd spot and giving up a shot a round next to Scottie Scheffler, who is out on his own when it comes to iron play.
McIlroy averages over 325 yards off the tee, so the only time his longer irons are coming out of the bag are when he’s taking on a par 5. Also, given he has a lot of yardage to cover with his bag set-up, he has to be both precise and versatile with his skills.
TaylorMade’s Adrian Rietveld described McIlroy as ‘the best 5-wood player I’ve ever seen. It’s really a unique club for Rory because of that versatility. It’s like watching an artist at work, seeing all the different shots he can hit with it.’
McIlroy’s bag has always been fairly standard and that was certainly the case for his recent win at Pebble Beach. He will occasionally carry a 3-iron, which he can hit 260 yards, but the longest iron in California was his 4 (here’s how far the average PGA Tour player hits their 4-iron).
The four-time Major winner has used a TaylorMade ‘Proto’ 4-iron, a club that gave him a higher ball flight, but his trusty P760 4-iron was in the bag for the AT&T.
Then rest of his irons are the Rors Proto. These are similar to the P7MB irons and all feature Project X Rifle 7.0 shafts. He has 4° increments between his irons and the lie angles change at a 0.5° increment.
McIlroy carries four wedges, again all at 4˚ increments and with a softer 6.5 shaft , with the TaylorMade Milled Grind making up the lowest three lofts. Then there’s a Titleist Vokey with the K-grind. This is ideal for the player with a neutral to shallow attack angle who plays on a variety of turf conditions.
As we all well know, it is McIlroy’s wedges that receive almost as much attention as his driver and they will be the focus at Augusta as he looks to make his scoring clubs as razor sharp as possible.
It’s hard to pinpoint a particular yardage that stands out. Again, when you are starting off with a 325-yard tee shot then the rest of your yardages are going to be fairly eye-popping.
If you were to picture a shot at your home course of 210 yards, then for many of us that might be a…
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