NEWS FROM THE TOUR VANS
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Rory McIlroy went to Bethpage Black as Team Europe’s undisputed leader. With four wins in 2025, including the Masters and his home Irish Open, his game was where it needed to be heading to the Ryder Cup.
McIlroy, however, made one big change since last playing in the U.S. at the Tour Championship. He swapped out the TaylorMade MG4 wedges he was using throughout the FedEx Cup season with some brand new MG5 wedges ahead of his Irish Open win at the K Club.
He first saw the new MG prototype at the Travelers Championship in June and TaylorMade took exact measurements of McIlroy’s MG4s in order to replicate the shapes for his new forged MG5 wedge set – 46, 50, 54 and 60 (bent to 61) degrees – that use the same Project X 6.5 shafts McIlroy had on his previous cast wedges.
“That was the first time he got to lay his eyes on [MG5], and his feedback is so critical because, so to speak, just copy exactly his shapes from MG4, which he’s in love with,” TaylorMade’s Greg Cesario told Golf Magazine in August regarding McIlroy’s testing at TPC River Highlands. “He has a very unique 60-degree. That’s a shape, that’s an offset, that is appealing to his eyes, that really doesn’t represent what MG4 was or anything. It was kind of a club fully designed and blessed by him with what his eyes wanted to see.”
The switch worked well as McIlroy claimed victory in Ireland his first time out with the new wedges that feature a new spin tread technology and saw-milled grooves to help increase spin and lower launch.
Notably absent at Bethpage for Team USA was Brooks Koepka, who didn’t perform well enough in 2025 on LIV Golf to be invited back as a captain’s pick like he was in 2023 in Rome. Koepka understood the decision.
“I mean, I played my way off it, so there’s nobody else [to blame],” he said in an interview ahead of a busy three-week DP World Tour stretch for him in Ireland, London and Paris. “I can’t be disappointed. I did it myself. It’s not anything I’m not aware of. I’m not shying away from it. It’s just bad timing. You have one down year, but if it’s the year after the Ryder Cup, it makes it a whole lot easier to catch up.”
Hoping to catch back up, Koepka aimed to address his putting during his recent European foray.
“The putter’s let me down this year,” he said. “If you’re not making the putts, you’re not confident, anything like that, it makes it very difficult, especially when I never really made anything inside 8 feet, which has kind of been my bread and butter my whole career.”
Koepka, 35, tried out a new putter at the Irish Open – a Scotty Cameron Fastback 1.5 – before a second-round 80 to miss the cut put an end to that trial. He went back to his Scotty Cameron Teryllium Tour Newport 2 model at Wentworth, but the results weren’t much better as he missed another cut despite a second-round 68.
Things trended better at the FedEx Open de France in Paris as Koepka played his way into a share of the 54-hole lead before ultimately finishing fourth with an encouraging four straight rounds in the 60s, including a 65 on Saturday.
“Putted a lot better,” Koepka said as he threatened to win for the first time on his original tour since 2014. “I feel like my game has been trending in the right direction. It’s just the results haven’t been there. I’m pleased with the work I’ve put in over the last few months. …
“I’ve felt very uncomfortable over the putts pretty much all year, just a little bit of hand position. We’ve got it sorted now where I feel like I’m striking the putts very well, hitting them on line and feeling confident and that’s honestly half the battle.”
Scott Michaux