McIlroy quietly swapped back to his TaylorMade Qi10 3-wood after giving the Qi4D a run—the same 3-wood he had in the bag when he won his first green jacket. The club was especially visible on Sunday as he dialed back the bomb-and-gouge approach and leaned on precision off the tee.

It's a familiar pattern. Similar to his decision to return to TaylorMade's Rors Proto blades at Pebble Beach, McIlroy gravitates toward gear he trusts when the stakes are highest. And there's data backing the call: the last five major winners—Rory (x2), Scottie Scheffler (x2), and J.J. Spaun—all had a Qi10 3-wood in the bag. Sometimes, the best equipment move is returning to what worked previously.