Rory McIlroy reveals anger over driver testing leak that led to media silence
Rory McIlroy was left 'p----d off' at the US PGA Championship last month after the news his driver failed testing leaked while Scottie Scheffler's same result stayed private.
The Masters champion declined to speak to the media after all of four rounds at Quail Hollow last month, where he finished in a tie for 47th after a poor opening day driving performance saw him hit just two fairways.
News broke during the US PGA second round that McIlroy's driver was found to be 'non-conforming' during testing before the tournament, which brought a cloud over the euphoria of finally completing the career grand slam by winning the Green Jacket.
Scheffler stormed to a five-shot victory at the US PGA to land his third major before revealing he, like McIlroy, was forced to change his driver after it also failed testing.
'Yeah, look, the PGA was a bit of a weird week,' McIlroy said ahead of this week's RBC Canadian Open. 'I didn't play well. I didn't play well the first day, so I wanted to go practice, so that was fine.
'Second day we finished late. I wanted to go back and see Poppy before she went to bed. The driver news broke. I didn't really want to speak on that. Saturday I was supposed to tee off at 8:20 in the morning. I didn't tee off until almost 2:00 in the afternoon, another late finish, was just tired, wanted to go home.
'Then Sunday, I just wanted to get on the plane and go back to Florida. Yeah, look, and also the driver stuff, there was -- I was a little p----d off because I knew that Scottie's driver had failed on Monday, 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.'
Non-conforming driver testing is a complex issue in golf with professionals unaware their drivers no longer meet requirements until they are tested.
A driver is invariably considered non-conforming if it deviates from the specifications set by the governing bodies and this can include exceeding limits on springiness.
When used extensively, drivers can experience 'CT creep' – characteristic timing – where the face flexes on impact causing wear which makes it illegal. McIlroy explained the frustrations over his testing result not remaining confidential led him to skip media as he did not want to say something he would later regret.
'Again, I didn't want to get up there and say something that I regretted, either, because there's a lot of people that – I'm trying to protect Scottie,' the five-time major winner added. 'I don't want to mention his name. I'm trying to protect TaylorMade. I'm trying to protect the USGA, PGA of America, myself.
'I just didn't want to get up there and say something that I regretted at the time.
'With Scottie's stuff, that's not my information to share. I knew that that had happened, but that's not on me to share that, and I felt that process is supposed to be kept confidential, and it wasn't for whatever reason. That's why I was pretty annoyed at that.
'From a responsibility standpoint, look, I understand, but if we all wanted to, we could all bypass you guys and we could just go on this and we could go on social media and we could talk about our round and do it our own way.'
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