Rory McIlroy didn’t go looking for a new golf ball, but sometimes change finds you.
The four-time major champion switched from the TaylorMade TP5x to the TP5 for this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The early returns were positive during Thursday’s first round when McIlroy carded a 6-under-par 66 at Spyglass Hill Golf Club. The opening 66 included McIlroy’s second-career hole-in-one on the PGA Tour. Per Data Golf, McIlroy gained 2.27 strokes on approach and 1.65 off the tee during the first round.
After the round, McIlroy revealed how the equipment change came about.
“I sort of stumbled upon it,” McIlroy said Thursday. “I was messing around at the Grove the other day. This has got to be like Thursday last week. I just started to hit some chips with the TP5 instead of the TP5x, and I really loved how I felt. I hadn’t really tested the 2024 TP5, but I loved how it was reacting around the greens. And then I started hitting some like 60- and 70-yard shots with it, and it was coming off with a much lower launch, but spinier.
“Then I just did some testing with it and compared it to the TP5x. I used a 2019 TP5, and the difference between a 2019 TP5 and a 2019 TP5x was a lot in terms of the spin rates and the launch angles. This seems to launch probably a degree lower for me, but the spin rate’s very, very similar, which I really like. Yeah, did some testing with it, really like it. Doesn’t seem to lose any speed with the driver either, even though it’s a lower-compression golf ball. I thought I’ve got four rounds this week, no cut, may as well give it a go and see how it goes. I played 18 at Pebble on Tuesday, played 18 at Cypress yesterday with it, and obviously played here today and it’s been really, really good.”
The addition of the TP5 is just one reason McIlroy enters the season feeling sharper than he has in the past at the start of the season.
In October, the Northern Irishman spent three weeks in a simulator to address some faults in his backswing. Hitting into the simulator allowed McIlroy to focus on the movement of his body and his swing and not worry about altering it to shape his shot.
That studio work, combined with more recreational golf in December and the ball change have McIlroy feeling primed to attack the early part of the PGA Tour season instead of using it to fine-tune his swing.
“I’m maybe not searching as much,” McIlroy said after his round. “I stayed pretty busy in that October period where I did a lot of swing work. Then I also played quite a lot of golf in December, which I don’t usually play, so I felt like that kept me a little more sharp. It’s mostly social golf, but I had a trip to Ohoopee, I had the Grove Member-Member, I had my trip to New Zealand, I played the Showdown in Vegas, so I was playing a lot of golf through December.
