Rory McIlroy is coming off a PGA Tour season where he finished second in Strokes: Off The Tee, becoming one of the first two golfers to average over 330 yards in driving distance.
And for the second year in a row, this week’s addition of the DP World Tour host, Delhi Golf Club, will take McIlroy’s biggest weapon off his hands. In fact, McIlroy said Wednesday that his driver may not reach the DP World Championship grounds in India.
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“I’m here to win the tournament. I’m not here to hit drivers,” he said in a pre-tournament interview. “I think the best chance would be for the driver to keep it in the bag or in the hotel room so I don’t try to touch it.”
McIlroy is certainly not a fool. Delhi Golf Club, hosting this tournament for the second year in a row, is one of the most unique challenges of the DP World Tour.
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Measuring just 6.912, Delhi Golf Club is one of the shortest courses on the DP World Tour schedule. On narrow, rough fairways, densely forested and even fenced off by ancient ruins, precision is crucial.
In pre-tournament press conferences, other players confirmed that they would also play without a driver, noting that the rough was even rougher than when they had the championship last year. When Tommy Fleetwood won last year, he made the mini driver the longest club in his bag. Fleetwood’s title-winning streak in Delhi also included a 4-iron alongside his 9-wood.
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As of 2025, McIlroy seems likely to remove both his driver and 3-wood and play with a 2-iron, 5-wood, and 3-iron at the top of his bag. He appeared to carry a 2-iron off the tee on DGC’s longest hole, the 556-yard par-5 18th.
On boxpreviewing the World Tour DP, McIlroy said he could only win a bag full of irons this week, but the 5 wood offered some advantages.
“The five-wood is necessary for two second shots on the par-5s,” he said. “Or two doglegs on the front nine where you can maybe have some height with the 5 wood and hit it through the corners.
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“Maybe a 5-iron that has the same swing, just different trajectories.”
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Min Woo Lee, who, like McIlroy, is one of the longest players in professional golf, averaging 322.4 yards off the tee, called it a mental challenge. He will also be without a ruler in his bag.
“I’m just saying it’s going to be an experiment,” he said. “Doing something so repetitive – hitting a long drive off the tee, putting a tee off, and getting in position – can be a bit repetitive, so I have to say that, you know, this is where we are this week.
“It’s going to be challenging for everyone. So I think I’ll just say, stay in it and, yeah, everyone just has to deal with it.”
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Open Championship winner Ryan Fox said this was the first tournament he had played without a driver in his bag.
Last season, 42 percent of the field went without a driver, according to Golf Inside Tour, the finisher’s outfit on the DP World Tour. But even the players who, sparingly used.
That seems to be the approach Race to Dubai leader Patrick Reed is taking this week.
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The pen said he’s sticking with his normal set, leaving the driver in the bag because he said he doesn’t have anything to store.
“I mean, I drove today to let two drivers hit me. Everything else was less than the driver,” Reed said. “Hit the roll over 10 with the driver, and then I hit the driver 18 and so beautiful that I go down well. Yes, I remember, two for two in the driver. It’s good.
“The driver is going to stay in the bag … So I set up the staff with my team. I need to look sitting there, but not be pulled out. It’s fine with me. I just go out there and find the hole that I feel is best for me to go out and attack.
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“Yeah, the driver will be dusty by the end of the week.”
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After Rory McIlroy’s biggest weapon in his hotel room this week, he first appeared on Golf.