Winner's Bag
Players 2025: The clubs Rory McIlroy used to win at TPC Sawgrass
Logan Bowles
Asked about going to a Monday playoff with J.J. Spaun for the Players Championship, Rory McIlroy said, “I feel like I should be going home with the trophy tonight but hopefully I’ll be going home with the trophy tomorrow.”
That proved prophetic as McIlroy birdied he par-5 16th while Spaun could only muster par. That was followed by Spaun finding the water at the par-3 17th, essentially handing the three-hole aggregate playoff to McIlroy.
Last week at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, McIlroy sent Uber to fetch his TaylorMade Qi10 driver and fairway woods from his Jupiter, Fla. home and bring them to Bay Hill for the final 18. Although McIlroy didn’t get the desired result that day (even par for a T-15 finish), the return on the approximately $260 investment came a week later when he used those clubs in winning the $4.5 million first prize.
McIlroy (and the rest of the field) had to endure a four-hour weather delay Sunday, but McIlroy handled it well, birdieing the par-5 11th prior to the stoppage of play then coming back to birdie the short par-4 12th after the break that opened a three-shot lead.
Aided by a fast start (McIlroy opened birdie-eagle, the latter with a 4-iron from 231 yards that stopped 10 feet from the hole on the par 5), McIlroy offset a bogey at the seventh with a 14-footer for birdie on eight; a 15-footer for another on 11 and a 13-footer on 12 to keep things moving in the proper direction. Although J.J. Spaun got within one after a birdie at 13 and knotted McIlroy after a birdie at 16.
For once McIlroy did not exhibit statistical dominance off the tee during a win. Instead, it was his approach game (ranked fifth in strokes gained/approach, picking up more than seven shots on the field) and putting (ranked 10th, nearly five shots better than the field average).
The now two-time Players champion uses a split set of TaylorMade irons, utilizing a P760 4-iron and Rors prototype muscleback-blade irons along with the company’s Milled Grind 4 pitching wedge.
On the greens McIlroy wielded a TaylorMade Spider Tour X X3 mallet. The putter is 34.5 inches in length with 3 degrees of loft and a short slant hosel. It also features TaylorMade’s “True Roll” insert and a SuperStroke Pistol Tour grip.
If anyone was surprised by McIlroy’s victory, he wasn’t one of them. “I think I'm headed in the right direction,” he said before the tournament began. “I've definitely straightened out a few of the iron shots, which was a big key for me coming into this week. I make enough birdies, it's just a matter of getting rid of the bad stuff.”
At TPC Sawgrass, McIlroy did both.
The clubs Rory McIlroy used to win the 2025 Players Championship
Ball: TaylorMade TP5
Driver: TaylorMade Qi10, 9 degrees
3-wood: TaylorMade Qi10, 15 degrees
5-wood: TaylorMade Qi10, 18 degrees
Irons (4): TaylorMade P760; (5-9): TaylorMade Rors prototype
Wedges: TaylorMade Milled Grind 4 (46, 50, 54, 60 degrees)
Putter: TaylorMade Spider Tour X X3