At this year’s PGA Championship, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler were mercilessly criticized. Neither Tommy nor Bryson was cheating when the United States Golf Association (USGA) ruled their drivers nonconforming. This ruling, introduced just days before the tournament, left many uncertainties regarding equipment regulations and player compliance. McIlroy’s go-to club for over a year was his driver. On the flip side, Scheffler said his driver was unusable before he captured his third major championship in a shocking five-shot rout.
It was during the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow that McIlroy really found himself running out of rhythm. He ultimately finished tied for 47th place, ending up three over par. McIlroy started the season in red hot form with a victory at the Masters helping him complete his career Grand Slam. His debut at the championship fell flat, and fans were left disappointed. He overcame an awful first round in which he found just four of 14 fairways. He quickly turned things around in the following rounds, hitting a personal-best seven fairways. This still surprisingly had him well down the list—43rd in driving accuracy—out of the 74 players who made the cut.
After the tournament concluded, McIlroy left Quail Hollow without addressing reporters for the fourth consecutive day, leaving many to speculate about his thoughts on the recent developments regarding his driver and performance.
Xander Schauffele, another major player in the tournament, went on record against the testing protocols by the USGA. He reminded them that testing must be both broad-based and all-inclusive to even the playing field throughout the sport.
“I think they should test everyone’s driver,” – Xander Schauffele
Schauffele blasted the narrowness of the testing in no uncertain terms. You can’t bring integrity to the game with just 50 drivers being tested.
“It’s not right to [just test 50 guys]. It just doesn’t make sense if you’re in it for the spirit of the game,” – Xander Schauffele
As he put it, if you want integrity, you need to test everyone who competes equally, so everybody’s subject to the same rules.
After his win, Scheffler went on record to agree with Schauffele about the need for driver testing. In the wake of this incident, he pushed for more rigorous protocols and transparency in equipment regulations.
“I would argue that if we’re going to test the drivers, we need to be even more robust in the way we test them,” – Scottie Scheffler
Scheffler encouraged players to be more involved with developing the testing process. He emphasized the need for partnership between governments and sport.
“If we’re going to test only a third of the field, if we’re going to do it right, leave it up to us as players, like the rest of the rules in the game of golf are,” – Scottie Scheffler
Leave a Reply