Rory McIlroy made a surprise equipment change prior to his hot Masters start

Masters week isn't typically a time where we see players make wholesale changes to their bag (unless your name is Bryson DeChambeau), however Rory McIlroy – traditionally a player who sticks with clubs he likes, saw fit to make at least one change before taking to the course at Augusta on Thursday.

While McIlroy has spoken effusively about the merits of his new TaylorMade Qi4D woods (including putting the new driver straight in the bag), the defending champion made the surprising decision to take his new 3-wood out of the bag for this weekend, reverting back to the Qi10 with which he won last year's tournament.

Tour equipment insider Inside Tour Golf posted an updated deep dive into McIlroy's bag overnight, revealing that the Qi10 had replaced the newer Qi4D wood he had been using to start the season.

Released back in 2023, the Qi10 fairway woods are, even by the standards of long-established clubs on tour, still extremely popular among professional players. 

Many TaylorMade staffers, including Scottie Scheffler and Tommy Fleetwood, still have Qi10 woods in the bag, while J.J. Spaun, Akshay Bhatia and Hideki Matsuyama are just a few players contracted to other equipment manufacturers who insist on using a Qi10 fairway wood.

For McIlroy, the move is the latest small chapter in a long on-off relationship between himself and TaylorMade's newer metal wood ranges. 

The world number two kept the Qi10 woods in his bag for pretty much the entirety of the 2025 season, and while he's seemingly getting on with his new Qi4D driver and 5-wood, there must be something amiss with his 3-wood to warrant him changing.

Whatever added bonus the Qi10 brings him seems to have made a difference, as McIlroy stuck the green with both of his 3-wood approach shots at holes 8 and 15 to set up eagle changes.

McIlroy tees off on Friday afternoon at 13:44EDT/17:44GMT. You can check out the full bag of clubs he'll be playing with here.