Rory McIlroy and the ‘non-conforming’ driver controversy

Aside from the brilliance of Scottie Scheffler’s imperious third major victory, the next-biggest talking point from the 107th US PGA was the controversy of Rory McIlroy’s “non-conforming” driver.

Rumours emerged early in the championship that the recently crowned Masters winner, who was continually struggling to find Quail Hollow’s fairways, had been forced to switch drivers before the year’s second major.

Initially, there was speculation that the one he had used to such great effect in winning at Augusta had cracked on the eve of the tournament here in North Carolina.

But then came a bombshell when PGA Tour Radio reported that the club had failed its test of legality.

In response, a statement was issued on Saturday lunchtime during the third round from the PGA of America’s chief championships officer Kerry Haigh. It confirmed testing for about a third of the players had been carried out by the United States Golf Association (USGA)

“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,” Haigh said.

“The results are kept confidential to protect players, who are unaware the club has fallen out of conformance,” he added. “To publicly identify players whose club did not conform can lead to that player being questioned unnecessarily.”

So, there were no names, no actual confirmation of any drivers failing the test and, in this case, little clarity as to what might have happened regarding the world number two.

Uncharacteristically, McIlroy ignored reporters after each of his rounds in an event where he only made the cut on the mark and finished three over par in a disappointing share of 47th place.

Observers were left with a vacuum, which was filled in some quarters with ill-informed and damaging speculation that might have called into question the validity of McIlroy’s Masters win.

“The fact that it got leaked leads people that don’t have all the information to draw conclusions that are not correct,” commented DP World Tour player Oliver Wilson, who watched all four days in North Carolina while commentating for BBC Radio 5 Live.