How Far Does Rory McIlroy Hit His Irons?

Four-time Major winner Rory McIlroy is one of the game's best ball strikers. Here, we look at how far he hits each of his irons

rory mcilroy hits an iron
Rory McIlroy hits his irons seriously far
(Image credit: Getty Images)

When you are a generational driver of the ball like Rory McIlroy, then you tend not to hear as much about his iron play. A quick overview of the Strokes Gained: Approach The Green stats from the 2024 PGA Tour sees him down in 52nd spot and giving up a shot a round next to Scottie Scheffler, who is out on his own when it comes to iron play.

McIlroy averages over 325 yards off the tee, so the only time his longer irons are coming out of the bag are when he's taking on a par 5. Also, given he has a lot of yardage to cover with his bag set-up, he has to be both precise and versatile with his skills.

TaylorMade's Adrian Rietveld described McIlroy as 'the best 5-wood player I've ever seen. It’s really a unique club for Rory because of that versatility. It’s like watching an artist at work, seeing all the different shots he can hit with it.'

McIlroy's bag has always been fairly standard and that was certainly the case for his recent win at Pebble Beach. He will occasionally carry a 3-iron, which he can hit 260 yards, but the longest iron in California was his 4 (here's how far the average PGA Tour player hits their 4-iron).

The four-time Major winner has used a TaylorMade 'Proto' 4-iron, a club that gave him a higher ball flight, but his trusty P760 4-iron was in the bag for the AT&T.

Then rest of his irons are the Rors Proto. These are similar to the P7MB irons and all feature Project X Rifle 7.0 shafts. He has 4° increments between his irons and the lie angles change at a 0.5° increment.

McIlroy carries four wedges, again all at 4˚ increments and with a softer 6.5 shaft , with the TaylorMade Milled Grind making up the lowest three lofts. Then there's a Titleist Vokey with the K-grind. This is ideal for the player with a neutral to shallow attack angle who plays on a variety of turf conditions.

As we all well know, it is McIlroy's wedges that receive almost as much attention as his driver and they will be the focus at Augusta as he looks to make his scoring clubs as razor sharp as possible.

It's hard to pinpoint a particular yardage that stands out. Again, when you are starting off with a 325-yard tee shot then the rest of your yardages are going to be fairly eye-popping.

If you were to picture a shot at your home course of 210 yards, then for many of us that might be a driver or, off the fairway, we would certainly be reaching for some sort of timber. McIlroy would be pulling out his 6-iron and getting there comfortably. His yardages are mind-boggling when you consider how far amateurs hit their irons.

In comparison, Scheffler's 6-iron measures 198 yards, so he will generally be hitting one more club into most greens.

Rory McIlroy's bag

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Rory McIlroy's Irons And Stock Yardages

4-iron TaylorMade P760 - 240 yards

5-iron TaylorMade Rors Proto - 225 yards

6-iron TaylorMade Rors Proto - 210 yards

7-iron TaylorMade Rors Proto - 195 yards

8-iron TaylorMade Rors Proto - 180 yards

9-iron TaylorMade Rors Proto - 165 yards

46˚ TaylorMade MG4 wedge (09SB) - 150 yards

50° TaylorMade MG4 wedge (09SB) - 136 yards

54° TaylorMade MG4 wedge (11SB) - 125 yards

58˚ Titleist Vokey Design WedgeWorks (K) - 105 yards

Mark Townsend
Contributing editor

Mark has worked in golf for over 20 years having started off his journalistic life at the Press Association and BBC Sport before moving to Sky Sports where he became their golf editor on skysports.com. He then worked at National Club Golfer and Lady Golfer where he was the deputy editor and he has interviewed many of the leading names in the game, both male and female, ghosted columns for the likes of Robert Rock, Charley Hull and Dame Laura Davies, as well as playing the vast majority of our Top 100 GB&I courses. He loves links golf with a particular love of Royal Dornoch and Kingsbarns. He is now a freelance, also working for the PGA and Robert Rock. Loves tour golf, both men and women and he remains the long-standing owner of an horrific short game. He plays at Moortown with a handicap of 6.

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