While Lucas Glover may believe there’s some bait-and-switch shenanigans happening during driver testing on tour, the PGA Tour seems certain there is not. That said, the tour remains committed to a random testing approach versus weekly full-field testing at this point.

Glover told SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio that he believes players who are called to submit their drivers for the random conformance testing for face flexibility may be avoiding having their actual gamers tested by sending in a backup model for the field test instead. But in a statement to Golf Digest, the tour offered an explanation regarding the rigour of its testing process.

“The PGA Tour works with a survey team to confirm that the drivers being tested early in the week are the drivers being used in competition,” the statement reads. “By matching serial numbers, those drivers are validated moments before players begin their competitive rounds.”

Under the testing protocol, which USGA representatives conduct on site working at the request of the PGA Tour, about a third of the players in the field submit a driver for testing, the players chosen randomly. The CT test, also called the pendulum test, takes a few minutes to run and drivers are characterised as either passing or failing the CT limit, which is a measurement of how the face flexes at impact. A higher CT number than the limit of 257 microseconds means a driver face is too flexible and thus nonconforming. During the testing, players also are notified if their drivers measure close to the CT limit. The idea is that driver faces that are hit repeatedly at high speeds will start to show a creep in the CT that would take them from conforming to nonconforming. That is what is believed to have happened with both Rory McIlroy’s and Scottie Scheffler’s drivers, which failed CT testing early in the week at the PGA Championship.

The concern over previously conforming drivers eventually failing the CT test also led Glover and others to suggest that the entire field at a tournament should be tested. For now the PGA Tour is not interested in that scenario.

“The purpose of club testing is simply to ensure that manufacturers are being held accountable to the equipment standards set forth by the USGA, who the tour works in concert to perform these tests,” read the tour’s statement to Golf Digest. “By testing approximately a third of the field, we are able to receive an appropriate sample of the drivers being used in competition.”

Main Image: USGA