<\/p>\n
England’s Tommy Fleetwood, center, plays a shot on the 5th hole during the day two of the 2026 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at the Kingsbarns Golf Course in St Andrews, Scotland, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (Steve Welsh\/PA via AP)<\/p>\n
Steve Welsh\/Steve Welsh\/PA via AP<\/p>\n
NEW DELHI (AP) \u2014 Since completing the career Grand Slam, Rory McIlroy has been constantly looking for new ways to inject some freshness and spark into his golf.<\/p>\n
Turns out two of his longtime Ryder Cup teammates are providing some inspiration.<\/p>\n
For this week\u2019s DP World India Championship, McIlroy has brought along a new look \u2014 baggy golf pants.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
After all, Tommy Fleetwood has been wearing them for a while.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have watched and I have admired Tommy Fleetwood over the past year,\u201d McIroy said, with a smile, on Wednesday’s DP World Locker Room show about his style that has generated plenty of chatter in New Delhi this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd in my everyday life, when I don\u2019t have to wear what is my golf uniform, I wear a lot of wide-legged pants. It is the in-thing, the fashionable thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
But how, McIlroy was asked, do they feel to play golf in?<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
\u201cThese hit a little low, maybe a little short \u2026 I understand they are maybe not as well-fitting as they need to be,\u201d he said, \u201cbut they are a work in progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also in the works for the Northern Irishman is a replica of what he calls his \u201cperformance trailer\u201d that he uses in the United States to aid his fitness and recovery during and between PGA Tour events, in an effort to gain an edge over rivals.<\/p>\n
Now, he wants one for when he plays on the European tour, too.<\/p>\n
McIlroy said that idea came from tennis great Novak Djokovic but also fellow golfer Justin Rose.<\/p>\n
\u201cI decided to pull the trigger on it when Justin won in Memphis last year,\u201d McIlroy said. \u201cHe\u2019s 45 years old, playing great, contending in major championships, and at that time I was 36. I was like, I want to play really well for the next 10 years \u2014 I feel like I need to do something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
McIlroy hopes to have that up and running by the summer of 2027 \u2014 by which time, who knows, he might have a record-tying eighth Order of Merit title that crowns the year\u2019s No. 1 player on the European tour.<\/p>\n
There are four events remaining in this season\u2019s Race to Dubai and McIlroy will play in three of them, starting in India.<\/p>\n
He is third in the standings, behind Patrick Reed and Eugenio Chacarra, but there’s little between the three players and plenty of points on offer in the season-ending events in India, South Korea, Abu Dhabi and finally Dubai.<\/p>\n
While Reed has stumbled of late thanks to an injury-prompted withdrawal at the BMW PGA Championship and a missed cut at the Spanish Open, Chacarra is finishing fast by climbing above McIlroy thanks to a tie for third at the French Open and a tie for second in Spain.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still anyone\u2019s game,\u201d Reed said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n
The American said he was swinging freely after the shoulder injury he sustained at Wentworth. He didn’t play in France or at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and returned to shoot 73-71 in Spain, failing to make the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, I was itching about getting back and getting out and playing,\u201d Reed said. \u201cDid I come back too early? Who knows. At the end of the day the good thing is I can\u2019t hurt it worse, and because of that, I have the confidence and the comfort level to come out here and execute and perform at the highest level.\u201d<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full golf coverage here<\/p>\n
Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England’s Tommy Fleetwood, center, plays a shot on the 5th hole during the day two of the 2026…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_volume":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2542,4989,5507,50,5710,339,152,54,148,17,5729,55],"class_list":["post-16782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tommy-fleetwood","tag-dubai","tag-eugenio-chacarra","tag-india","tag-justin-rose","tag-new-delhi","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-patrick-reed","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-rory-mcilroy-india-golf-reed","tag-tommy-fleetwood","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@fogolf\/117439990655825544","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/pros\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}