Scottie Scheffler confirms his driver failed testing at PGA Championship

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — While Rory McIlroy stayed mum on the topic of reports his driver had to be replaced after failing USGA testing this week at the PGA Championship, Scottie Scheffler confirmed that he won the tournament using a backup driver after his failed.

“Driver testing is something that regularly happens on Tour,” Scheffler said after the win. “My driver did fail me this week. 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, I felt like.”

Speaking to defending champion Xander Schauffele about driver testing following his round, Golfweek’s Adam Schupak quoted the two-time major champion suggesting the World No. 1’s driver might also have been deemed non-conforming earlier this week.

“I think Scott is winning the tournament and I think he switched to his backup too,” Schauffele said on Sunday as Scheffler was beginning his final round with a commanding lead.

Schauffele went on to say that driver testing during major weeks shouldn’t be random. A reported sampling of 50 drivers were tested this week by the sport’s governing body.

“Do it to everybody, not just a third of the guys, and if a player has a hot driver they’re still playing the tournament. Just my take,” Schauffele said.

Schauffele has strong opinions on the subject after he was forced to switch to a backup after his driver failed testing ahead of the 2019 Open Championship.

Scheffler agreed some changes should be made to the way drivers are tested on tour and at major championships.

“I would argue that if we’re going to test the drivers, we need to be even more robust in the way we test them,” Scheffler said. “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.

“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.”

For the fourth day in a row, McIlroy opted not to speak with media following his round at Quail Hollow. Without hearing from the Masters champion himself, it’s impossible to know why he decided to be so unusally silent during what has been a wonderful season for the 36-year-old.

Is it possible the Northern Irishman is upset that his results of what is supposed to be a confidential testing process somehow leaked? Could be, but until he speaks or releases a statement it will remain a mystery.

McIlroy could have cleared the air earlier in the week, and it would also have helped clarify to mainstream sports fans that having a driver pulled for testing non-conforming is nothing like cheating.

Modern drivers are built so close to the legal limits that after hitting thousands of balls, the club can  change enough to fail the test.

“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,” said Kerry Haigh, the PGA of America’s Chief Championships Officer.

Think of it like a Formula One car that begins a race within legal specifications but over the course of a race a part rubs against a curb and gets too thin, or the tires lose so much rubber that the car is under weight and fails post-race weigh-in. In these situations, nobody blames Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen. It’s simply a modern reality of a sport played on the cutting edge of technology.

But on a week where casual sports fans are tuning into golf, a little more transparency would go a long way.