AUGUSTA, Ga. — Every golfer has a soft spot in their game. Rory McIlroy's has been distance wedges. Those awkward three-quarter scoring shots where golfers need to shave speed off so their ball travels an exact distance.
Longer hitters like McIlroy tend to have more trouble with these shots—because they have so much speed to begin with—but at Augusta this week, he's been dialed.
When things go wrong for McIlroy with these shots, it's because his golf swing, and in particular his follow through, tends to get very big. I can't really find a good example, but you don't need to take my word for it.
Here's what the legendary Butch Harmon said about McIlroy's wedges last year:
"We need to bring down that ball flight, and to do that we need to chop off that follow through. If you notice now when you watch him, you'll see him making a three-quarter follow through instead of that long follow through."
McIlroy seems to hit his wedges better when he does this extra short follow through, flighty wedge shot. His 2022 Canadian Open victory always sticks in my mind as a good example of him doing this well.
This is the shot that he's unleashing this week at Augusta. The follow through on these distance wedge shots looks extra short, with the club pointing towards the sky on the follow through. The ball comes off low but with plenty of spin to grab.
It's a little mid-range navigator, and he's hit it 13 times in three rounds, by my count. You can spot it all over the place.
The results are, in a word, fantastic.
McIlroy's 50-125 yard stats
📉 2025 season: 20' 5" average proximity
📈 2025 Masters: 13' 2" average proximity
To put those numbers in perspective: McIlroy's season average up until this point was only good enough to rank him 148th on tour. His average at the 2025 Masters itself would rank him first on tour in the same category.
It's this nasty, flighty, point-to-the-sky wedge shot that's propelling him there—and potentially toward a green jacket.