Rory McIlroy was ‘pretty annoyed’ non-conforming driver news became public
Failures are supposed to remain confidential as no blame is attached to the player in question but the news broke on the Friday evening.
Masters champion Rory McIlroy admits he was “p***ed off” that news of his driver failing technical standards made headlines before last month’s US PGA Championship.
Two days before the tournament was due to start the world number two had the club pulled from his bag after official testing showed it had crossed the threshold, the so-called ‘trampoline effect’ when the face of the club becomes more springy.
Failures are supposed to remain confidential as no blame is attached to the player in question but the news broke on the Friday evening.
World number one Scottie Scheffler’s driver also failed the test but that never became public until he volunteered the information at his winner’s press conference after securing his third major.
As a result McIlroy, uncharacteristically, declined to speak to the media over all four days and left Quail Hollow without uttering a word in public after finishing joint-47th.
Two-and-a-half weeks later the Northern Irishman was back in front of the microphone ahead of the RBC Canadian Open at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley and sought to justify his media blackout.
“I was a little p***ed off because I knew that Scottie’s driver had failed but my name was the one that was leaked. It was supposed to stay confidential,” said McIlroy.
“I didn’t want to get up there and say something that I regretted, either, because I’m trying to protect Scottie – I don’t want to mention his name – I’m trying to protect TaylorMade. I’m trying to protect the USGA, PGA of America, myself.
“With Scottie’s stuff, that’s not my information to share. That process is supposed to be kept confidential and it wasn’t for whatever reason. That’s why I was pretty annoyed at that.”
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McIlroy, a two-time Canadian Open winner, added: “The PGA was a bit of a weird week. I didn’t play well the first day, so I wanted to go practise, so that was fine. Second day we finished late, I wanted to go back and see (daughter) Poppy before she went to bed.
“The driver news broke, Saturday I was supposed to tee off at 8:20 in the morning and I didn’t tee off until almost two in the afternoon, another late finish, and I was just tired, wanted to go home.
“Then Sunday, I just wanted to get on the plane and go back to Florida.”
Winning at Augusta brought McIlroy his long-awaited career Grand Slam, becoming only the sixth male golfer to achieve the feat, but he admits now he has conquered that peak things have changed for him.
Asked what challenge was left for him the 36-year-old said: “I don’t know if I’m chasing anything.
“I would certainly say that the last few weeks I’ve had a couple of weeks off and going and grinding on the range for three or four hours every day is maybe a little tougher than it used to be.
“You have this event in your life that you’ve worked towards and it happens, sometimes it’s hard to find the motivation to get back on the horse and go again.
“I think the last two weeks have been good for me just as a reset, just to sort of figure out where I’m at in my own head, what I want to do, where I want to play.
“I thought it was a good time to reset some goals.”