'I Wish I Could Use My Driver From Last Year' - McIlroy After Sawgrass Struggles

Rory McIlroy is still scratching around searching for a comfortable driver set-up after admitting to struggling off the tee in recent weeks – following a tough start to the Players Championship.

McIlroy shot a four-over round of 76 on day one at TPC Sawgrass, hitting the longest drive of the day of 362 yards but finishing just T87 in driving accuracy – forcing him to play from the penal rough far too often.

The 2019 Players Championship winner says that he’s struggling to find a driver head that works as well as the one he played with last year – regardless of how much testing he does alongside TaylorMade.

“I went to that new driver in Riviera, and it's just not...Look, I wish I could use my driver from last year, but I can't just because of - you use a driver for so long, and it starts to get a little too - basically it just wouldn't pass the test,” McIlroy said after round one at the Players.

McIlroy is likely referring to driver face 'creeping' where over time, the vast number of shots hit during practice and play out of the center causes the face to get slightly more compressed and thinner over time, making it a little hotter in terms of ball speed. His old driver would likely have already been very close to the legal CT (Characteristic time) limit when he first started using it, so any creeping would cause it to become non confirming. The USGA has been conducting a lot more testing on tour in recent seasons to clamp down on this as manufacturers try and push performance to the limits.

McIlroy had the TaylorMade Stealth Plus driver in the bag throughout 2022 but in 2023 he has now put the newer Stealth 2 Plus driver in play, with so far mixed results.

“These driver heads are so finicky, it's hard to get one exactly the same. I mean, I'm obviously trying my best, trying to get something that's as close to what I had last year. Yeah, just struggled a little bit off the tee the last couple weeks."

McIlroy was quick to add that he takes responsibility for not swinging the big dog as well as he has done in the past – with driver probably the best club in his bag when he’s firing on all cylinders.

“This one is as close as it's been. There's obviously a part of it that's the user, as well. It's quite a lot of user error in there, as well."

“They were testing drivers at Riviera, but I just didn't even want to take the chance. I just was not comfortable knowing that it could feel - doesn't look good on me, doesn't look good on TaylorMade.”

It was a disappointing round for McIlroy given he was playing in a stellar marquee group against Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler.

"It's another grouping," McIlroy insisted. "I've been a part of these one, two, threes for the last 10 years. I'm used to it."