Rory McIlroy, the No. 2-ranked golfer in the world and four-time major champion, hasn’t won a major since the 2014 PGA Championship, and his lone Open Championship victory also came in 2014 at Royal Liverpool.

Eight years later, with 18 holes left to play in The 2022 Open Championship, McIlroy finds himself tied for the lead with Viktor Hovland, and in prime position to become Champion Golfer of the Year once again. This time at The Old Course at St. Andrews.

What would this win mean to McIlroy?

“That’s a moment you dream about, especially being from this part of the world,” McIlroy said in his press conference prior to the event. “This was the major championship, it was the first one I ever attended as a kid. Yeah, it just means a little bit more…to hear your name and winner of the gold medal, Champion Golfer of the Year, it’s what dreams are made of. I still remember that pretty vividly. I’d love to replicate that on Sunday evening.”

St. Andrews, as McIlroy discussed earlier in the week, is a different beast compared to most other events throughout the year, even ones that are also hosted at St. Andrews.

“I think everyone’s seen how firm and fast the fairways are,” McIlroy said after his first round at The Open. “The weather looks pretty similar for the rest of the week…I’ve played this course mostly in, like, September, October time for Dunhill, where it plays completely differently. Then, it’s sort of hit driver everywhere, get it as close to the greens as you can, and then take your chances from there. I think this week you’re going to maybe see guys laying back a little bit…laying back, giving yourself full shots into some of these greens, playing the angles a little bit more, I think that’s going to be really important this week. It’s definitely a lot more of a strategic golf course when it plays like this…if you hit a lot of drivers, you may get close to some of these greens, and it would be advantageous to lay back and give yourself fuller wedge shots into some of these greens.” 

In preparation for a tournament that means something different, in course conditions that are extremely firm, fast and windy, McIlroy made 3 unique changes to his gear setup this week.

1) Rory changes out his 5-wood for a 2-iron

Throughout most of his career, McIlroy has opted to use a 5-wood at the top-end of his bag. This week, though, McIlroy benched the 5-wood for TaylorMade’s newly launched Stealth UDI 2-iron (18 degrees), equipped with a Project X HZRDUS 105 6.5-flex shaft.

As McIlroy alluded to above, blasting driver everywhere isn’t necessarily the most sound strategy at St. Andrews this week. He’s playing more of a chess game, and keeping the ball under the wind with his lower-launching Stealth UDI has proven effective thus far.

See more in-hand photos of Rory’s new 2-iron

2) A pitching wedge switch-up

Typically, McIlroy uses a set of TaylorMade Rors Proto blade irons through his pitching wedge. He’ll then usually go with two traditionally shaped wedges; at the recent RBC Canadian Open in June, for example, he opted for 54- and 60-degree TaylorMade Milled Grind 3 (MG3) wedges.

Rory McIlroy’s new pitching wedge (photo credit: Mike Esse/TaylorMade)

This week, however, GolfWRX spotted McIlroy with a 46-degree MG3 Raw wedge in the bag. His Open Championship pitching wedge is a “standard bounce” MG3 Raw model with 9 degrees of bounce.

3) A low-bounce lobber

 

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During most events throughout the year, McIlroy uses an HB (High Bounce) TaylorMade lob wedge. When he came to the firm conditions at St. Andrews, however, McIlroy switched into a TaylorMade MG3 Raw LB (Low Bounce) 60-07 wedge.

McIlroy spoke about the switch earlier in the week:

“I’m using a lob wedge with less bounce than I usually do,” McIlroy said. “Even still, I don’t know if — I think I could do with using even less bounce. Again, the fairways are so firm. And some of the lies are so bare that…I felt like if I had a full lob wedge there [on the 17th hole in the first round] and I didn’t get it quite right, then I could have thinned the thing…you’re worried about hitting a lob wedge out of bounds because of a bare lie off the fairway. It’s tricky.”

Below, check out McIlroy’s full WITB as he looks to capture his 5th major championship victory at The 2022 Open Championship at St. Andrews.

Driver: TaylorMade Stealth Plus (9 degrees)
Shaft: Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X

3-wood: TaylorMade SIM Titanium (15 degrees)
Shaft: Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro White 80 TX

Driving Iron: TaylorMade Stealth UDI 2-iron (18-degrees)
Shaft: ProjectX HZRDUS 105 6.5-flex

Irons: TaylorMade Rors Proto (3-9 iron)
Shaft: Project X 7.0

Wedges: TaylorMade MG3 Raw (46-09, 54-13 and 60-07)
Shafts: Project X 6.5

Putter: TaylorMade Spider Hydro Blast

Ball: 2021 TaylorMade TP5x (#22)

Grips: Golf Pride MCC

More photos of McIlroy’s setup at The 2022 Open