Organisers of the PGA Championship have dismissed any suggestion of ‘intent’ after it emerged Rory McIlroy’s driver failed a compliancy test prior to the tournament.
The world No 2 has cut a frustrated figure all week and snubbed the media following each of his first two rounds, which were characterised by his poor play off the tee.
It only came to light on Friday evening, while he was fighting to make the cut, that he had been forced into replacing the most effective club in his bag at the start of the week following testing by the US Golf Association.
While no specific details of the breach have been made public, it is understood the face of McIlroy’s TaylorMade Qi10 driver had worn too thin. As such, it could flex beyond the limits imposed to safeguard against an advantageous ‘trampoline’ effect upon contact with the ball.
The issue is not uncommon, especially among bigger hitters, though the fact the authorities do not publish cases can make it seem that way. Xander Schauffele, for one, incurred the same issue at the Open Championship in 2019 and was irritated when his fellow pros took to joking that he was a ‘cheat’.
Kerry Haigh, the chief championships officer at the PGA of America, moved to quickly stem any similar narrative around McIlroy with a statement yesterday that did not reference the Masters champion by name.
Rory McIlroy’s regular driver failed a compliancy test and was replaced ahead of the PGA Championship
However, the PGA and USGA conceded that they have ‘no concerns’ about player intent
McIlroy’s TaylorMade Qi10 driver had worn too thin which could give him an advantage
He said: ‘Finding driver heads that have crept over the line of conformance is not an unusual occurrence, especially for clubs that are hit thousands of times over a long period of time.
‘The results are kept confidential to protect players, who are unaware the club has fallen out of conformance and not responsible for it falling out of conformance other than hitting the club thousands of times.
‘Players are simply asked to change heads if necessary, and all do without issue. To publicly identify players whose club did not conform can lead to that player being questioned unnecessarily. Neither the USGA nor the PGA of America have any concerns about player intent.’
Haigh added that around a third of the field was ‘randomly tested’, which is standard across the tours and the majors.
Owing to McIlroy’s media silence since the tournament began, he is yet to address the scenario. One question of interest will concern what testing his own team perform on his equipment away from tournaments to mitigate against such disruption.
Even though McIlroy’s replacement clubhead was the same model, the switch will not have helped his game here, with elite golfers tending to be creatures of habit. Subtle differences are noticed.
McIlroy’s fondness for this particular club, with which he won the Masters, has been well documented — when he was struggling with TaylorMade’s newer model in March, he paid an Uber driver $1000 to ferry his favoured one from home to Bay Hill.
Irrespective of McIlroy’s feelings on the topic, his game this week has been underwhelming as a follow-up to his Augusta performances. His mood was also not helped by the storm delays of almost four hours ahead of the third round.
McIlroy was one of 10 players this week who had illegal drivers and had to make changes
He had initially been scheduled to commence his round at 8.25am local time and was on his way to the first tee when the hooter sounded. Turning to his caddie Harry Diamond, he smirked and said ‘f*** off’ before leaving the course.
Of the earlier starters, playing in a growing breeze, the 36-hole leader Jhonattan Vegas quickly fell back to six under par with successive bogeys on the first two holes.
That briefly allowed Matt Fitzpatrick to join him at the front after opening with three straight pars, before a bogey on the fourth. He was at five under through four.
The tournament has so far been characterised by a lack of star power on the upper reaches of the leaderboard, but Jon Rahm made efforts to correct that. His big-stage showings have been largely underwhelming since joining LIV at the end of 2023, but he gained three strokes in his first 10 holes here yesterday.
Having reached five under par, the two-time major winner benefitted from someone else’s discomfort at the 11th.
A loose approach to the par four had seemed destined for deep rough to the left of the green, but his ball clattered off a fan’s head, raced off at a right angle, and found a safer spot on the opposite side of the putting surface. Thankfully, the spectator was able to laugh it off.
Scottie Scheffler was opened with a bogey at the first, but birdies on the fourth and fifth hole put him tied with Bryson DeChambeau on six under.
After a slow start and gripes about mudballs, driver conformity and storm hooters, the tournament was hotting up.
