Why did Rory McIlroy switch putters ahead of the 2023 Tour Championship? Real reason explored

Rory McIlroy is putting his best feet forward to defend his Tour Championship title this week at the East Lakes Golf Club. The Northern Irish golfer has even changed his golf gear to chase down FedEx Cup standings leader Scottie Scheffler.

The final playoff event of the FedEx Cup will get under on Thursday, August 24 with the inaugural round. It will continue over the weekend to have its final on Sunday, August 27 in Atlanta.

McIlroy played the first two playoff events with Scotty Cameron Phantom X 5.5, which he is likely to replace with a TaylorMade Spider Hydro Blast. He played with the Spider putter during the practice round of the Tour Championship and benched TaylorMade over Cameron Mallet in his interview with the media.

Speaking about the putter, Rory McIlroy said via PGA Tour:

"There was a lot of putts last week that had a lot of break on them from short distances, and I felt with the shorter line on the putter I just couldn't trust my aim as much as when I have the spider and have that slightly longer line."

The changes in the putter are more of a feel as McIlroy entered the playoffs 83rd in strokes gained while playing with Scotty.

Rory McIlroy last played at the BMW Championship with his Scotty Cameron Phantom putter and finished with a score of under 12 in fourth place. He started the game on Thursday, August 17, with a birdie on the seventh hole.

He made five birdies to score 65 in the first round of the tournament. However, he struggled a bit with his game in the second round when he carded a birdie and a bogey to settle with a score of 70.

The Northern Irish golfer started the third round with a birdie on the first hole and then made two more birdies on the third and fourth holes. He canned a birdie on the sixth and a birdie on the 15th hole. He also made two bogeys in the third round.

McIlroy made five birdies and one bogey in the final round to score 66 and finished with a score of under 12 to settle in fourth place.

When will Rory McIlroy tee off at the 2023 Tour Championship?

The Tour Championship will start with the first round on Thursday, August 24, with Rory McIlroy will tee off at 1:49 pm ET with Jon Rahm. Jordan Spieth will take the first shot of the day with Sepp Straka at 11:26 a.m. ET.

Here are the tee times for the 2023 Tour Championship round 1 (All time in ET):

11:26 a.m.: Jordan Spieth, Sepp Straka
11:37 a.m.: Emiliano Grillo, Tyrrell Hatton
11:48 a.m.: Jason Day, Sam Burns
11:59 a.m.: Adam Schenk, Collin Morikawa
12:10 p.m.: Taylor Moore, Nick Taylor
12:21 p.m.: Corey Conners, Si Woo Kim
12:32 p.m.: Sungjae Im, Tony Finau
12:43 p.m.: Xander Schauffele, Tom Kim
12:54 p.m.: Keegan Bradley, Rickie Fowler
1:05 p.m.: Tommy Fleetwood, Russell Henley
1:16 p.m.: Wyndham Clark, Matt Fitzpatrick
1:27 p.m.: Patrick Cantlay, Brian Harman
1:38 p.m.: Lucas Glover, Max Homa
1:49 p.m.: Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm
2 p.m.: Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland