Rory McIlroy switches to shortened TaylorMade Qi35 driver at RBC Canadian Open
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Rory McIlroy cards three birdies in a row at RBC Canadian
Written by GolfWRX
In the first round of the 2025 RBC Canadian Open, defending FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy officially switched into a new TaylorMade Qi35 driver. To understand the significance of this switch, let’s rewind the tape to earlier this year.
McIlroy started his 2025 season on the PGA TOUR with a win at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am with three TaylorMade Qi10 woods in the bag, including his driver, 3-wood, and 5-wood. He wasn’t quite ready to switch into the new Qi35 technology just yet.
Then, at the 2025 Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, McIlroy switched into a new TaylorMade Qi35 driver and 3-wood, but he only played them for the first three rounds before switching back to his old Qi10 technology – he wasn’t yet comfortable with the new clubs to make a permanent switch.
The next month, McIlroy went on to complete the career Grand Slam, winning the Masters Tournament using his trusty TaylorMade Qi10 driver. However, ahead of the 107th PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club, McIlroy’s Qi10 gamer driver was deemed non-conforming, and he switched to a backup version of the driver, going on to finish T47 at the PGA.
Ahead of the 2025 RBC Canadian Open – three weeks after the PGA Championship, and one week shy of the U.S. Open at Oakmont – McIlroy came to Canada with a new driver in the bag. This time, it was a TaylorMade Qi35 driver with a shorter build than his previous version. His new driver build is a Qi35 Core head with 9 degrees of loft, with the hosel set to “lower,” and it measures nearly an inch shorter, now playing at 44 5/8 inches with a Fujikura Ventus Black VeloCore+ 6X shaft.
Following his first-round 1-over 71 at TPC Toronto, the two-time RBC Canadian Open champion spoke about the performance differences with his new driver that he’s still working on.
“I hit some drives that I liked and that I liked to see, so that was encouraging…it’s hard with the driver, like with the one I had been playing with previously, when I missed with it, I was a little bit left,” McIlroy said after Round 1. “Then my miss with this one is a little bit right. It’s just trying to figure that out and manage it a little bit.”
Rory McIlroy spotted with a TaylorMade Qi35 3-wood during the RBC Canadian Open pro-am at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley. (Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)
The changes in Canada didn’t stop with the driver for McIlroy, either.
On Thursday, McIlroy also switched into a TaylorMade Qi35 15-degree 3-wood, equipped with a Fujikura Ventus Black 8X shaft, and he switched out his TaylorMade 5-wood for a TaylorMade P770 3-iron; his switch out of a 5-wood isn’t uncommon, though, since he typically travels with both a long iron and a 5-wood, and he interchanges them based on course and weather conditions.
Of course, these changes for McIlroy come just one week ahead of the start of the 2025 U.S. Open at Oakmont, where it’s rumored that the rough is especially thick, and the course is playing extremely difficult.
Certainly, a shorter driver build hints that McIlroy is gearing up to gain control off the tee ahead of the year’s third major championship, but will the changes stick this time? Tune in this week at the RBC Canadian Open, and the U.S. Open at Oakmont next week, to find out.