Tiger Woods made a rare change to his driver setup at the 2022 JP McManus Pro-Am at Adare Manor in Ireland on Monday.

Since 2018, and as recently as the 2022 PGA Championship, Woods had been using a Mitsubishi Diamana D+ Limited model (either 60 TX or 70 TX) in his drivers. When he showed up in Ireland on Monday for the event, however, his TaylorMade Stealth Plus driver (9 degrees) was equipped with a Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X shaft.

Warming up before the round, fellow TaylorMade staffer Rory McIlroy discussed the switch with Woods, leading Woods to offer McIlroy try it out for himself. It was a brief yet intriguing exchange watching two of the game’s most popular players geeking out over a gear change.

Rory McIlroy tests out Tiger Woods' driver @JPProAm.

"Too much loft for you?" Tiger asks.pic.twitter.com/mcGlIdhhBZ

— Golf Central (@GolfCentral) July 4, 2022

Woods’ new shaft build was certainly familiar for McIlroy since the Fujikura Ventus Black 6 X shaft is the same model that McIlroy himself has in his own TaylorMade Stealth Plus driver (9 degrees set at 7.5 degrees).

Based on the exchange, although Woods and McIlroy are using the same low-spin shaft, Woods’ head configuration has a bit more loft than McIlroy’s. As McIlroy was addressing the ball to try out Woods’ new driver setup for the first time, Woods asked him if the driver has “too much loft for you?”

McIlroy confirmed Woods’ suspicions:  “A little bit, yeah.”

To see GolfWRX’s most recent in-hand photos of their TaylorMade Stealth Plus drivers, check out McIlroy’s 2022 WITB and Woods’ 2022 WITB.

 

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In other relevant gear testing news, TaylorMade posted on Instagram on Monday that McIlroy was “Testing out something new this week.”

Judging by the video, it appears as though McIlroy is hitting a new utility iron, which would make sense with The 2022 Open Championship at St. Andrews (Old Course) just a week away. Tour pros often switch out their higher-lofted fairways and rescues for a long iron option that may better penetrate the blustery Scottish winds during Open Championships.

While it’s difficult to decipher the exact head, model, or loft that McIlroy was spotted testing out, GolfWRX did photograph a new TaylorMade Stealth UDI 2-iron in left-hander Robert MacIntyre’s bag on Monday ahead of the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club in Scotland. McIlroy probably wouldn’t fare too well using MacIntyre’s lefty version, but could it be the same model that McIlroy was testing in TaylorMade’s video?

GolfWRX is live from the Scottish Open and The Open Championship over the next two weeks in Scotland, so we’ll be sure to report back on any confirmed changes or further gear testing. Stay in touch with our latest updates on GolfWRX’s Instagram or TikTok pages, too!