CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Masters champion Rory McIlroy‘s driver wasn’t the one one the USA Golf Affiliation declared nonconforming in testing earlier than this week’s PGA Championship at Quail Hole Membership.
World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler additionally confirmed Sunday that the USGA dominated his driver unplayable earlier than he captured his third major with a five-stroke victory over Harris English, Bryson DeChambeau and Davis Riley.
“The driving force testing is one thing that recurrently occurs on tour,” Scheffler mentioned. “My driver did fail me this week. We had a sense that it was going to be coming as a result of I’ve used that driver for over a yr. I used to be sort of lucky for it to final that lengthy, I felt like.”
McIlroy, who accomplished the profession Grand Slam by successful a inexperienced jacket on the Masters in April, was additionally among the many golfers whose drivers have been declared nonconforming by the USGA, in keeping with a report on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio on Friday.
McIlroy, who tied for forty seventh at 3 over within the PGA Championship, left Quail Hole on Sunday with out speaking to reporters for the fourth straight day.
He tied for forty third in driving accuracy among the many 74 gamers who made the lower Sunday, hitting 7 of 14 fairways. Within the first spherical, he hit solely 4 of 14 fairways.
The PGA of America requested that the USGA conduct driver testing at Quail Hole, it mentioned in an announcement.
“That program is according to the identical degree of help that we offer to the PGA Tour as a part of their common program for driver testing,” the USGA mentioned.
The driving force testing focuses on, amongst different issues, the “attribute time” of a membership’s face or its springlike impact. Drivers’ faces are inclined to “creep” or skinny the extra they’re utilized by golfers, giving them much more spring.
Outcomes of the testing are confidential.
Scheffler struggled to hit fairways along with his new driver on the entrance 9 Sunday. He mentioned his new driver wasn’t the difficulty; it was his swing. He hit 13 of 14 fairways within the third spherical along with his new TaylorMade driver.
“I might argue that if we’ll check the drivers, we have to be much more strong in the best way we check them,” Scheffler mentioned. “That was a dialog I had with one of many guidelines officers; if it is one thing we’ll take critically, I really feel like we’re virtually going midway with it proper now.
“If we’ll check solely a 3rd of the sector, if we’ll do it proper, go away it as much as us as gamers, like the remainder of the principles within the recreation of golf are.”
Two-time main champion Xander Schauffele agreed that the complete discipline’s drivers have to be examined.
“I feel they need to check everybody’s driver,” he advised Golfweek on Sunday. “It is not proper to just test 50 guys. It simply would not make sense when you’re in it for the spirit [of the game]. The entire level of it’s to guard the integrity of the sector. In case you do not check everybody throughout the board, I do not suppose you are defending the entire discipline.”
