Rory McIlroy battled through challenging conditions and a packed leaderboard to capture his 27th career PGA TOUR victory at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Coming off a bogey-free third round 65, McIlroy shot 66 in the final round to win by two at 21-under (66-70-65-66). The win marks McIlroy eighth straight season with a victory on the PGA TOUR.

McIlroy sealed the victory with four birdies or better with his new TP5 golf ball on the first seven holes of the back nine including a 27-foot eagle putt on 14 and a birdie on 15 after stuffing his Milled Grind 4 wedge to 4-feet. Prior to that, McIlroy began to stretch his lead with a 9-foot birdie on 12 and another birdie from downtown on 10 from 18-feet.

McIlroy's 27th career PGA TOUR win since 2010 is five more than any other player in that span and his 15th when trailing entering the final round which is seven more than any other player. He also notched his 7th win when outside the top-10 through 36 holes good for second most in the last 40 years behind Tiger Woods.

BEHIND THE SWITCH TO TP5

The backstory of McIlroy’s win at the iconic Pebble Beach, starts with a practice day at the iconic Michael Jordan’s golf course one week before he teed it up at Pebble. As McIlroy was working on the short game area, he hit a few shots around the green and was intrigued by the feel of TP5.

"I sort of stumbled upon (TP5). I just started to hit some chip shots with the TP5 instead of the TP5x and I really loved how it felt. I hadn't really tested the 2024 TP5 and I loved how it was reacting around the greens. Then I started hitting some 60, 70-yard shots with it and it was coming off much lower launch but spinnier."
 
Rory McIlroy.

In testing with full iron shots, launch angle with TP5 was about a degree lower while spin rates matched his TP5x. With the benefits around the greens of the softer TP5, McIlroy retained the ball speed with his driver that he possessed with TP5x.

Once his initial testing session was over, when Rory arrived at Pebble he TP5 through its paces during his Tuesday practice at Pebble. After a late afternoon 18-hole spin around the Monterey Peninsula, TP5 was in the bag.

“I thought, you know, I’ve got four rounds this week, no cut, you know, may as well give it a go,” he said.

Perhaps as a precursor of what was to come, during his practice round on Tuesday McIlroy holed out from a greenside bunker on the fifth hole. Then, less than 48 hours later on his sixth hole of his first round with TP5, McIlroy dunked his tee shot on the par-three 15th at Spyglass Hill.

Statistically speaking, in the third round McIlroy finished second in the field in Strokes Gained: Around the Green at 2.429 with the benefits of the soft feel he saw at MJ’s place. As he said during his assessment of the switch on Thursday, McIlroy’s driving continued to thrive at Pebble Beach leading the field in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (6.173) and Driving Distance (336.70).

YEAR OF THE SPIDER 2.0?

After winning four times with Spider Tour X in 2024, McIlroy notched yet another victory with his Spider. For the tournament, McIlroy made 15 birdies or better from 6+ feet including four from 25+ feet. He finished seventh in SG: Putting at 4.303.

In the final round, McIlroy made three birdies or better from 12+ feet including a leaderboard separating 17-foot-7-inch birdie on 10 and 26-foot-7 inch eagle on 14.

He had three eagles or better for the week, which marks the third time since 2020 he has done so. McIlroy won the other two events where that feat occurred (2021 CJ Cup, 2024 Wells Fargo).