Fuming Rory McIlroy aims blast at golf media while explaining his press boycott after USPGA Championship
RORY McILROY was 'p***
ed off' that news of his driver failing technical standards was leaked at last month's USPGA Championship.
Scottie Scheffler's club also failed a similar test. Failures are supposed to be confidential but
2
Yesterday he spoke to the media for the first time since the driver controversy
Credit: Getty
2
He cited how Scottie Scheffler's driver had also failed a random specifications test
Credit: Getty
The Masters champ left Quail Hollow without speaking a word in public.
But ahead of teeing off today in the Canadian Open, McIlroy, 36 said: 'I was a little bit p***ed off because I knew Scottie's driver had failed but my name was the one that was leaked.
'It was supposed to stay confidential. Two members of the media were the ones that leaked it."
Two days before the tournament was due to start, the Holywood golfer had the club pulled from his bag after official testing showed it had crossed the so-called 'trampoline effect' threshold — when the face of the club becomes more springy.
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Quail Hollow champ Scheffler's driver also failed the same test but that information never became public until the world No 1 volunteered it at his winner's press conference.
Explaining why he didn't complain at the time, McIlroy said: 'I didn't want to get up there and say something that I regretted.
'With Scottie's stuff, that's not my information to share. That process is supposed to be kept confidential and it wasn't for whatever reason. That's why I was pretty annoyed at that.'
McIlroy, a two-time Canadian Open winner, added: 'The PGA was a bit of a weird week.
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"I didn't play well the first day, so I wanted to go practice, so that was fine.
'Second day, we finished late and I wanted to go back and see my daughter Poppy before she went to bed.
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"The driver news broke - I didn't really want to speak on that. Saturday, I was meant to tee off at 8:20 in the morning.
"I didn't tee off until almost two o'clock in the afternoon - another late finish. I was just tired and wanted to go home.
'And on Sunday, I just wanted to get on the plane and go back to Florida.'
NOT MANADATORY
In a warning to the assembled media, the five-time major winner said he could boycott the tournament's press pack if he wanted to as PGA Tour rules do not require players to speak with them.
He added: 'From a responsibility standpoint - I understand - if we all wanted to, we could bypass you guys and just go on social media to talk about our round and do it our own way.
'We understand that's not ideal for you guys, because there's a bigger dynamic at play here. I talk to you guys, and I talk to the media a lot.
'I think there should be an understanding that this is a two-way street.
"As much as we need to speak to you guys, we also understand the benefit of you being here — giving us the platform and everything else. I understand that.
'But again, I've been beating this drum for a long time — if they want to make it mandatory, that's fine. But in our rules, it says that it's not [obligatory to speak to the media].
'Until the day it's written into the rules, you're going to have guys that skip from time to time - and that's well within our rights.'
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