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Rory McIlroy was not the only player whose driver was flagged as non-conforming ahead of the PGA Championship. It happened to the champion, too.
Scottie Scheffler, who shot 71 in the final round and won his third major championship by five shots at 11 under par, confirmed on Sunday he was among the 50 players whose drivers were tested early in the week at Quail Hollow, and that the TaylorMade Qi10 driver that he planned to use in the tournament did not pass testing.
The PGA of America did not identify the players whose clubs did not pass, but it was reported on Friday by Sirius XM PGA Tour Radio that McIlroy had to replace his TaylorMade Qi10 driver. McIlroy has yet to speak on the subject because he declined interview requests for all four days of the PGA.
“So, the driver testing is something that regularly happens on tour. My driver did fail me this week,” Scheffler said. “We had a feeling that it was going to be coming because I’ve used that driver for over a year. I was kind of fortunate for it to last that long.”
Fellow player and two-time major champion Xander Schauffele, who had a driver not pass testing at the 2019 Open Championship, was the first on Sunday to reveal that Scheffler’s driver did not pass. In an interview with Golfweek discussing driver testing after completing the tournament, Schauffele said, “I think Scott is winning the tournament and I think he switched to his backup too.”
Schauffele said in the interview that all drivers should be regularly tested, as opposed to the current system that randomly selects players for testing.
Scheffler said on Sunday that testing needs to be “even more robust.”
“That was a conversation I had with one of the rules officials; if it’s something we’re going to take seriously, I feel like we’re almost going halfway with it right now,” Scheffler said. “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.
“It’s a newer rule that we haven’t quite gotten right yet. I think we have some stuff to figure out. I think, if we’re going to do it, we might as well do it right, get more robust and get even more strict. You can test guys every week, if you want. I mean, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t.”
Scheffler, who ranked fifth in the tournament for strokes gained/off the tee, said switch to another driver “is actually really easy. Like I said, we were prepared for it.”
Scheffler said he’d practised and competed with the same driver for more than a year and “felt fortunate for it to last that long.”
He said he and the TaylorMade equipment team were focused at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, which Scheffler won by eight shots, on creating a replacement driver for him. The club fitter, he said, “did a great job getting me fit for a head.”
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