Rory McIlroy starts his season in Dubai; it’s no real change to how he’s handled each season for the past few years. But what has changed – his equipment.

For the first time in his illustrious career, the 29-time PGA TOUR winner has opted not to start a tournament with blade irons, the pinnacle of professional golf equipment, and instead is introducing a set of cavity-back irons.

“I’m actually trying a new set of irons, which I’m very excited about at the minute,” .

Starting his career back at the Betfred British Masters, a young and slightly more sturdy McIlroy, rocked up with a set of Titleist 660 blade irons, thinner than the knives in your best silverware set, and, since then, has either used variations of Titleist, Nike and TaylorMade blade irons in his setup. From time to time, he’s added a more forgiving longer-iron, but now, as McIlroy embarks on his 19th year as a professional, he’s gone full cavity.

As he embarks on another season on the DP World Tour and looks to win his eighth Race to Dubai title, McIlroy is equipped now with 5- through 9-iron in TaylorMade’s P7CB lineup at the Dubai Invitational at Dubai Creek Resort, ditching the RORS Protos, a muscle-back made specifically for the career Grand Slam winner.

TaylorMade told krikya789.com that the swap came down to more forgiveness and “was the main reason why he even explored CBs.”

"If there's help to be had, I'll definitely take it," McIlroy said after an opening-round 66 in Dubai to move into contention for the lead. "Yeah, I've been thinking about it for a while. And even in Dubai at the end of last year, I hit a couple of 5-irons that I mis-struck slightly, and instead of it maybe coming up 5 or 7 yards short, it was coming up more like 10 to 15 yards short.

"So I asked the guys at TaylorMade to build me up a set. And I actually went down to Australia with them, and with that firm turf down there, I felt like those irons were going through the turf better than the blades."

The experiment started in his last start of 2025 at the Crown Australian Open, where McIlroy looked set on adding just a 4- through 6-iron in the cavity back make to help with the longer irons, but ended up with a full set for the weekend at Royal Melbourne GC and finished the week +0.59 in Strokes Gained: Approach. He also went on to use them in Boston Common's Season 2 TGL debut, and now is taking them from the big screen to the course again.

The change to a full set of cavity backs comes with some unique quirks just for McIlroy. For those looking closely, the P7CBs in McIlory’s bag this week at the Dubai Invitational feature a custom leading edge, designed to mirror that of the P760 long irons, which he has used for a few years now. That, and less offset on the irons, compared to a standard set, are created to help stop McIlroy from digging the club at impact and turf ground interaction. TaylorMade also added that, “They even held the line a little bit better."

McIlroy's irons swap also comes while moving into TaylorMade’s Qi4D driver, 3-wood and 5-wood to end 2025. A significant jump for the Northern Irishman, who stayed mostly in TaylorMade’s Qi10 line rather than moving into the last generation Qi35. He's also switched to TaylorMade's next-generation golf ball, which has yet to be announced to the public.

"I've got a new golf ball in play this week as well, the new 2026 ball," McIlroy added. "So overall, I like what I've seen at home, and today was a good test for it, and I felt like everything was pretty good."

While no details have been shared on the new golf ball, McIlroy moved from TaylorMade’s TP5x golf ball to the company’s TP5, prior to his first win of the season last year at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and it was a vital piece of equipment tinkering that helped him secure his career Grand Slam.

“I loved how it was reacting around the greens. And then I started hitting some like 60-, 70-yard shots with it and it was coming off much lower launch, but spinnier,” McIlroy said last year about the change.

We'll wait to see what's new about the ball in Dubai, but a big season looks to be on the cards for McIlroy yet again if he can find his fit.