Rory McIlroy makes another equipment change ahead of the Truist Championship

It's been a little while (and a much-talked-about period) since we saw Rory McIlroy tee it up on the PGA Tour, but the Masters champion is officially back on the circuit and he has some new gear in the bag to boot.

The Northern Irishman has made a few changes to his equipment set-up in recent months, starting off the season by tinkering with his irons before reverting to his trusted RORS Protos. 

He has also had an on-off relationship with his new Qi4D metalwoods, putting the much-acclaimed new driver in the bag straight away while also experimenting with the fairway woods of the same model.

While McIlroy started the season playing the Qi4D fairway woods, he elected to swap back to the Qi10 model released a couple of years ago – a club that remains enduringly popular on tour.

This weekend, however, the Qi4D is back in the bag, McIlroy having tweaked the set-up of the clubs to lock in his desired launch conditions.

As detailed by GolfWRX equipment insider Alistair Cameron, McIlroy has switched back into the Qi4D 3-wood, swapping the front weight from 9g to 7g.

Golf Digest's Jonathan Wall asked McIlroy about his process of getting comfortable and dialled in with the Qi4D. 

"It was more like a mini driver than a 3-wood," McIlroy told Wall. "It sort of spins like 2,700, it's pretty fast. It could be a good club for like Memorial, for example. But I felt like I needed a 3-wood that just spun a little bit more."

As ever, McIlroy's 3-wood comes with a heavier version of the shaft he uses in his driver and other woods, namely the Fujikura Ventus VeloCore+ Black.

You can watch him put it in play when he tees off at Quail Hollow alongside Matt Fitzpatrick at 15:05 EST/10:05 GMT.