Rory McIlroy made history Sunday winning a record breaking fourth Hero Dubai Desert Classic, and his 17th career win on the DP World and his 35th worldwide.
After starting the weekend 10-strokes back of the lead, a sensational bogey-free round of 63 on Saturday had McIlroy in the final group going into Sunday. McIlroy put his stamp on the final round early by delivering a 355-yard drive on the Par 4 second hole that landed on the green and finished 30-feet from the pin before two putting for birdie.
Furthermore, he then holed a 32-foot putt for birdie on the 8th hole and a 16-foot birdie putt on the 9th to lead by three strokes at the turn. After battling difficult conditions on the back nine, he remained steady down the stretch making par at the last to seal the one-shot victory with rounds of 71-70-63-70.
What new equipment is McIlroy using?
McIlroy averaged 329.6 yards off the tee this week, leading the field in driving distance. McIlroy was using the TaylorMade Qi10 driver which is part of the ‘most forgiving family of drivers’ the company has produced with the innovative lineup of Qi10 Max, Qi10 LS and Qi10 of which all models are featured on tour globally.
After extensive testing McIlroy decided on the Qi10 as he prefers look and feel of the larger head. The Qi10 head launches higher than LS coupled with new golf ball which has a lower peak height. McIlroy also saw tighter spin rates overall and more consistent results on mishits. In addition to the new Qi10 driver in the bag, McIlroy has paired this with new Qi10 fairways offering him optimal spin numbers with the larger and more forgiving Qi10 fairway heads.
In addition, McIlroy’s equipment also has a new feature in his bag, the all new TP5x golf ball. In offseason testing McIlroy gained considerable distance with his irons and ball speed with his driver. Overall, the ball produced a flatter and lower peak trajectory with driver and a softer feel with more spin around the greens.
Rounding off the new additions in McIlroy’s bag is his new Spider Tour X putter. After first seeing multiple versions of Spider Tour X at the BMW Championship in 2023, McIlroy gravitated toward the putter that suited his eye best. His Spider Tour X has a slightly shallower face angle matched with the face angle spec of his previous gamer.
Rory McIlroy WITB
- Qi10 9.0° driver (Ventus Black 6-X)
- Qi10 15.0° 3-wood (Ventus Black 8-X)
- Qi10 19.0° 5-wood (Ventus Black 9-X)
- P·760 4-iron, Rors Proto 5-9 (Project X 7.0)
- Milled Grind 4 46.09° SB, 50.09° SB, 54.11° SB (Project X 6.5)
- Milled Grind 4 60.08° LB (Project X Wedge 6.5)
- Spider Tour X
- 2024 TP5x
