New year, new golf balls, new set of irons…the old Rory McIlroy. Golf’s newest Grand Slam champion started the 2026 season as usual in Dubai, getting off to a strong start at the 2026 Dubai Invitational with an opening five-under 66 and taking the top spot in the DP World Tour event after the first round.
McIlroy leads David Puig and Connor Syme by one shot, with a rival group including Tommy Fleetwood, Shane Lowry and Patrick Reed occupying a spot on the leaderboard at 2 under, three off the early pace.
Armed with new equipment, McIlroy got off to a strong start with four birdies on his scorecard in the first five holes. From there, he cashed in three more around the turn and coasted toward the clubhouse at Dubai Creek Resort. Irons continued to be a top topic as he continued to try out the new P7CB set.
“If there’s help, I’ll definitely take it,” McIlroy said of switching to a full cavity back. “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that for a while. And even in Dubai late last year, I hit a few 5-irons and mishit them slightly, but instead of maybe 5-7 yards short, I was probably 10-15 yards short.”
“So I asked the guys at TaylorMade to put together a set for me. I actually went to Australia with them and the grass was really nice and I felt like the irons cut through the grass better than the blades. Since then, I’ve never played one at home. And we’ve been using the new golf ball this week, the new 2026 ball. So overall, I like the ball that I saw at home. Today was a good test of that and I felt like everything came together.” ”
McIlroy’s move isn’t all that surprising when you analyze his numbers for 2025. Despite winning four world championships and leading Europe to victory in the Ryder Cup, his approach numbers quietly declined as the season progressed. By year’s end, he had posted his worst strokes-gained-approach season since his rookie year on the PGA Tour, buoyed by career-high putts.
Notably, the 36-year-old particularly struggled with the middle irons. Despite all the talk about his wedge play and his improvement from last winter to spring, McIlroy’s distance dropped from 150 to 175 yards. From that distance, he connected on less than 60 percent of the greens in regulation, about 15 percent fewer than the PGA Tour leaders and 10 percent fewer than the previous year. Proximity and scoring have also decreased.
So while this season may not be ripe with the motivational pillars of previous years – career Grand Slam ambitions, an Open win in his home country and a Ryder Cup in the US – McIlroy suggests they may not be needed as the work and process of getting better is enough. If the first round in Dubai is any indication, he will be on track.
“I love the job. I love the process. I enjoy doing things that are challenging,” McIlroy said. “And I think if you just make it an important part and make it a routine, you don’t need motivation to do it. It’s your lifestyle and what you do. And I think it’s recognizing who you are. And I’m a hard worker. And I think the more you do that, the more you become who you are. And I’ve been doing it for so long that it feels pretty foreign at this point that it would have been if I hadn’t done it.”
