McGinley Lambasts USGA/PGA Of America Over Handling Of McIlroy Driver Issue

1 month ago by Comments Off on McGinley Lambasts USGA/PGA Of America Over Handling Of McIlroy Driver Issue

Paul McGinley has taken the USGA and PGA of America to task over their handling in seeking Masters champion Rory McIlroy to change the head of his TaylorMade driver just two days prior to last week’s 107th hosting of the PGA Championship.

Such news was supposed to have been confidential but it was led with suggestions that McIlroy had may have used a possible illegal driver in winning the Masters.

Then we learned via PGA Tour Radio the club had been deemed to be illegal.

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

Though we would later learn it would seem just eight player drivers were actually tested.

“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.”


McIlroy had been approached both ahead of the Quail Hollow event and also after each of his rounds for comment but in a very uncharacteristic manner, the newest Grand Slam winner avoided any contact at all with the media.

McGinley got involved when speaking on the Golf Channel and, as per usual, pulled no punches in declaring:

“What his reasons were for not speaking, I don’t know, but what I will say about the equipment issue—and Scottie Scheffler is correct— the authorities need to take ownership of this and not leave it down to the players to deal with it.

“I think they could have got ahead of the story this week. They tested a third of the players and Scottie has just said that he had an issue with his driver as well.

“So why didn’t they come out and just be transparent and make a nice announcement at the start of the week, or do something every single week?

“I mean, there’s enough money around the game. Have somebody there every week that checks 156 drivers. It’s not difficult and it’s a shame that this kind of stuff is coming in.

“People on social media are coming out and saying ‘How long has it been that kind of driver?’ and, ‘Was it at the Masters, or was it not?’ I mean, this is all speculation that shouldn’t have happened…

“And then the PGA puts out a statement to say, ‘Oh, we’re protecting the players.’ You’re not protecting the players. Quite clearly, you’ve exposed Rory.

“And you know, Scottie has admitted that he’s had it as well. But that rumour didn’t come out. Rory’s rumour did come out, and all of a sudden the speculation on social media escalates and it’s out of control”.

Haig added: “Neither the USGA nor the PGA of America have any concerns about player intent.”

Unfortunately, the manner the issue was handled by both the USGA and PGA of America in seeking to keep the matter away from the public’s ears but then the news being leaked seems very amateurish indeed.

If eight eight drivers were found to have breached the rules last week it was only McIlroy’s driver and much later Scottie Scheffler’s that became public knowledge.



Comments are closed.