Rory McIlroy will be forced to use his backup driver at the PGA Championship after his preferred driver was deemed “non-conforming” by the USGA.
The discovery came after the USGA did testing at Quail Hollow at the request of PGA of America, as reported by SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio on Friday.
The tests, which results are confidential, took place before the first round.
“That program is consistent with the same level of support that we provide to the PGA Tour as part of their regular program for driver testing,” the USGA said, via ESPN.
Although McIlroy has stirred up controversy by refusing to comment in back-to-back days, this sort of testing is not uncommon.
A non-conforming driver is also not an uncommon discovery.
“The USGA conducts these tests pretty much every week out here on professional golf, and they test it across all aspects of the face of the driver. Drivers fail all the time. Every single week, somebody’s driver fails,” PGA Tour winner and current Golf Channel commentator Johnson Wagner told SiriusXM radio.
“It is by no fault of the player. They don’t know how to do it, it is a sophisticated testing system. And when you’re a player like Rory McIlroy that hits the ball as hard as he does, the face naturally thins out… But when you’re hitting it like Rory McIlroy with his speed, it thins out a little quicker.”
McIlroy has been using his gamer driver since 2024. It hasn’t been illegally modified and simply changed over time due to continued use.
