Golf fans react to Rory McIlroy THUMPING his new TaylorMade SIM2 driver

Rory McIlroy makes his first start of the year at this week's Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship on the European Tour and he will put the new TaylorMade SIM2 driver in his bag for the very first time.

The Northern Irishman goes into this week's event as the bookies' favourite to win, but he faces stiff competition in a stellar field that includes the likes of Justin Thomas, Tyrrell Hatton, Tommy Fleetwood and Matt Fitzpatrick.

RELATED: Justin Thomas pictured wearing unknown golf shirt ahead of Abu Dhabi tournament

TaylorMade's new range was officially announced today and whilst warming up for this week's event, the European Tour posted a video on social media of McIlroy thumping his SIM2 driver.

WATCH MCILROY'S DRIVE IN THE VIDEO BELOW (YOU'LL WANT THE SOUND ON!):

Rory on the range #ADGolfChamps #RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/EL0ynATwug

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) January 18, 2021

The video led many golf fans to discuss McIlroy on both Twitter and Instagram, with one fan pointing out although McIlroy's driving is one of the best on tour, it's other parts of his game he needs to work on.

"Always rips it. How’s his wedge game? Putting improved? If those areas don’t improve then he can hit it as good as he wants off the tee, he’ll still struggle to win majors against the new crop players. Big fan of Rory, but so frustrating at times," read the comment.

It's a fair comment, given that McIlroy is currently 2nd on the PGA Tour's Driving Distance statistics with an average distance of 322.7 yards, whilst the 31-year-old ranks 153rd in Strokes Gained around the green, a statistic that will need to vastly improve if he is to win another major any time soon.

For more golf fan reactions to McIlroy's drive, click the tweet we posted in the article and it will take you to Twitter where you can read more comments.

NEXT PAGE: Golf fans react to Kevin Na's UNIQUE LOGO on his polo shirt