PGA Of America Issues Statement After Rory McIlroy’s Non-Conforming Driver Report.

The PGA of America has released a statement confirming some players’ drivers were tested by the USGA before the PGA Championship.

 

The PGA of America has issued a statement clarifying that the USGA conducted pre-tournament driver testing on select players before the PGA Championship. This comes in response to reports suggesting Rory McIlroy’s driver was found to be non-compliant.

 

HBAgency

HBAgency

HBAgency

Reports surfaced on Friday’s second round that McIlroy had to switch drivers prior to the tournament. His performance off the tee in the first 36 holes of the Quail Hollow Major was notably below his usual standards.

 

Jason Sobel of @SiriusXMPGATOUR reported that McIlroy’s TaylorMade Qi10 driver was ruled non-conforming on Tuesday. In Thursday’s opening round, he hit just four of 14 fairways, ranked 85th in Strokes Gained: Off The Tee, and 41st in Driving Distance. He showed some improvement on Friday, just enough to make the cut.

 

The PGA of America confirmed it had asked the USGA to conduct the club testing, emphasizing that this was a standard practice and not out of the ordinary.

 

Kerry Haigh, Chief Championships Officer of the PGA of America, stated: “We can confirm the USGA was invited to carry out club testing at the PGA Championship at our request. This is in line with the usual support the USGA provides to the PGA Tour and other events as part of routine driver testing protocols.”

 

The statement also outlined that roughly one-third of the field is randomly selected for testing, which was the case at Quail Hollow.

 

After news broke about McIlroy’s driver, reports suggested it failed a CT (characteristic time) test, which evaluates the clubface’s trampoline effect. The PGA of America explained that such occurrences aren’t uncommon and that players are not held responsible when their equipment becomes non-compliant..

 

It continued: “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.”