Rory McIlroy is shaking up his golf bag just weeks before the Ryder Cup.
At this week’s Irish Open at the K Club outside of Dublin, McIlroy has swapped in TaylorMade’s new MG5 for all four of his wedges as he starts his prep for Bethpage Black.
It’s McIlroy’s first appearance since finishing T23 at the Tour Championship to conclude his FedEx Cup season. McIlroy, who has played his same RORS Proto irons since joining TaylorMade in 2017, isn’t one to make gear switches often, so a fairly quick upgrade to new wedges is noteworthy.
Fresh @TaylorMadeGolf MG5 wedges for Rory McIlroy at the Irish Open.
He first saw MG Proto at the Travelers in June and TaylorMade took exact measurements of his MG4s to copy the shapes for the new forged wedges.
The process started earlier this summer, when TaylorMade’s team, led by Master Wedge Craftsman Greg Cesario, first showed McIlroy MG5’s predecessor, MG Proto, at the Travelers Championship.
The prototype, which was the same as MG5 aside from cosmetics, was released a few weeks earlier at the Memorial, but Cesario’s team didn’t have the chance to show them to McIlroy until after the U.S. Open in Connecticut.
Cesario didn’t have much time, about 30 minutes, to work with McIlroy as he prepped for the year’s final Signature Event on Wednesday of tournament week. But he was helping him lay the foundation for what McIlroy would put in play this week.
“That was the first time he got to lay his eyes on [MG5], and his feedback is so critical because, so to speak, just copy exactly his shapes from MG4, which he’s in love with,” Cesario told GOLF last month. “He has a very unique 60-degree. That’s a shape, that’s an offset, that is appealing to his eyes, that really doesn’t represent what MG4 was or anything. It was kind of a club fully designed and blessed by him with what his eyes wanted to see.”
On the range at TPC River Highlands, as McIlroy was putting MG Proto through its paces for the first time, Cesario was taking a protractor to McIlroy’s MG4s and measuring the offset, sole width and bounce
Getting the measurements was just one piece of the puzzle. Cesario already had McIlroy’s specs in a CAD (computer-aided design) file but with MG5 being a forged construction rather than a cast construction like MG4, he said there were “still some human elements to that conversion.”
Cesario said the process is a little harder than with forged irons because the shape tolerances are even tighter with wedges.
McIlroy has had these new MG5s for about a month and likely was waiting for the end of the FedEx Cup season before putting them in the bag.
His new lob wedge remains bent to 61 degrees, a change he made before the start of the season. The higher loft, and thus higher bounce, gave him an easier time getting through the turf on half- and three-quarter wedge shots.
TaylorMade Milled Grind 5 Custom Wedge
FORGED FEEL
Incredible feel is a must for having a great wedge game. MG5 has been forged from soft carbon steel and designed with geometry to provide excellent feel with great feedback.
MAXIMUM SPIN
MG5 uses all-new, more aggressive grooves designed to maximize spin. Saw-milled grooves produce tighter tolerances allowing engineers to design steeper walls and sharper radii intended to maximize spin in both dry and damp conditions.
PERFORMANCE IN ALL CONDITIONS
RAW face with Spin Tread technology channels away moisture to help retain spin. The same way that tire treads help your car stay connected to the road, laser-etched channels redirect water at impact and creates more friction between the club face and golf ball to maintain spin in wet conditions.
CRAFTSMANSHIP MEETS CONSISTENCY
Crafted by hand and then milled to perfection. Each wedge and sole grind are precision-milled to eliminate the natural human error that comes with hand polishing. Our grinds deliver unmatched consistency and craftsmanship that players can count on every time.
CHARCOAL FINISH
MG5 debuts a sleek, sophisticated charcoal finish that reduces glare and enhances its aesthetic appeal in the bag.
“That distance is the hardest shot to hit with a wedge, even for a tour pro,” said Keith Sbarbarro, TaylorMade’s VP of Tour Operations and McIlroy’s fitter. “Tour players are really comfortable on half shots, three-quarter shots and full shots. A half shot with a 60° wedge probably goes around 75 yards, so the 60-yard or less shot is a lot harder for them.”
In Ireland, McIlroy also found that the new spin tread technology and saw milled grooves on the MG5 helped increase spin and lower launch, especially in poor conditions.
With the new wedge setup, McIlroy shot a one-under 71 in the opening round at the K Club, five off the lead.
McIlroy’s MG5 wedge specs
TaylorMade
TaylorMade MG5 Raw Lofts: (46/09SB, 50/09SB, 54/11SB, 60/08LB @ 61˚) Shafts: Project X 6.5 (46-54), Project X 6.5 Wedge (60) Length: 36″, 35.75″, 35.5″, 35.125″ CUT Lie: 62/62.5/63/63.5 Swingweight: D4-D5
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