History Unlocked | Rory McIlroy Captures Career Grand Slam in Augusta
Rory McIlroy made history in Augusta becoming just the sixth golfer to complete the career Grand Slam winning in a playoff. With his TP5 golf ball and Spider Tour X in the bag, he also became just the 21st player to win five majors amongst his 29 career PGA TOUR wins.
Rory is also just the third player in the history of the tournament to come back from seven strokes back after the first round.
Prior to his season debut at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Rory switched to TP5 golf ball for lower launch with irons and wedges and more spin around the greens. The switch sparked a historic run with Rory winning at Pebble Beach, THE PLAYERS and now in Augusta.
On the first playoff hole, Rory had 125-yards in with his Milled Grind 4 50° wedge and perfectly shaped it past the hole and spun his TP5 back down the slope to just two-feet. Rory secured the historic win by sinking the birdie putt with his Spider Tour X putter.
With his TP5 golf ball, Rory became the third player in history to win THE PLAYERS and in Augusta in the same season to join fellow Team TaylorMade athletes Tiger Woods and Scottie Scheffler.
When talking about the benefits of TP5, Rory explained that he feels like overall he is better around the greens and playing half- and three-quarter shots.
“The first time I worked on it a lot was at Pebble Beach, and we had to contend with some really windy conditions there at the weekend and played well in that. When the conditions come like that, I just feel like I'm a lot better prepared to handle them. It's flighting the sort of wedges and short irons, which have been the issue, and I feel like I've been able to rectify that.”Rory McIlroy
Rory benefits from the launch angle of TP5 on all shots. We saw that in the third round, where he skied a 6-iron from 205 into the Par 5 15th green to six feet before making eagle. Then, in the final round on the same hole, Rory hoisted a high draw from 209-yards with 7-iron to make birdie.
"He’s always been a high hitter of the golf ball and TP5 launches a little bit lower than TP5x," said Adrian Reitveld, Senior Tour Manager. "He can couple that with the right spin and speed and it’s a golf ball he’s very comfortable hitting high.”
Rory showed his comfort with that shot once again on the 17th hole with 8-iron to two feet leading to make birdie to take the lead.
"He played the TP5x because it gave him a real consistency of spin at a low spin rate," said Rietveld. "He found that in TP5 as well and felt he really could play both golf balls. Although TP5 spins more, it's the consistency of the spin which gives it the predictability to hit the shots he wants."
With all of those performance characteristics in tow, Rory has focused more on what the ball is doing rather than his mechanics, which is a big philosophical change in his approach.
“I would say that for that period of time at the end of last year that was the most important thing and not actually what the ball was doing. Where now what the ball is doing is the most important thing and then that's sort of secondary. I think to execute a hundred percent, I think there's very little thought for technique in there, it's just a matter of visualizing and sort of letting your body do it. I think all of that combined, you know, with the fact that I feel like I'm controlling my ball much better in the wind these days, I think that's a big part of it, as well.”Rory McIlroy
Rory’s win in Augusta marks the fourth win in nine years by a champion using a Spider putter. It also marks back-to-back years the winner yielded a Spider Tour X putter.
Rory’s Spider Tour X spec is:
- SIGHT LINE: Full Line
- INSERT: Pure Roll
- FINISH: Torched
- SHAFT: Black Stepless
- LENGTH: 34.5" EOG
- LOFT: 3°
- LIE: 69.5°
- SWING WEIGHT: E0
- GRIP: SuperStroke Pistol Tour
- WRAPS: 1
Concurrent with the ball change, Rory bent his 60° MG4 to 61°. According to TaylorMade VP of Tour Operations, Keith Sbarbaro, the 61° wedge doesn’t catch in the grain and has low enough bounce to perform well on tight grass like in Augusta. Sbarbaro also said the 61° wedge also makes hitting the 40-70 yard shots much easier with lower launch and spin.
- HEAD: Milled Grind 4 60.08° LB
- FINISHED LOFT: 61°
- LIE: 63.5°
- SHAFT: Project X 6.5 Wedge
- LENGTH: 35 1/8’’ CUT
- SWINGWEIGHT: D5
- GRIP: Golf Pride Multi Compound White/Black Rib
- TAPES: 2
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