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Rory McIlroy entered Quail Hollow, a place he’d already won four times, as a strong favorite to win the PGA Championship. He left with a 47th-placed finish and a cloud of controversy after he was found to have shown up to the event with an illegal driver. But eventual winner and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler says McIlroy did nothing wrong.
In fact, Scheffler revealed that his driver also failed testing prior to the event and that it’s a fairly common occurrence. Scheffler then advocated for a more consistent testing process that is actually stricter than the one currently in place.
“I would argue that if we’re going to test the drivers, we need to be more robust in the way we test them.”
Scottie Scheffler reveals his driver failed testing this week but says it’s time for a more consistent, stricter process. pic.twitter.com/PESL5Sdb0E
— GOLF.com (@GOLF_com) May 19, 2025
“So the driver testing is something that regularly happens on (the PGA) Tour. My driver did fail me this week,” Scheffler said. “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.”
Scottie Scheffler And Xander Schauffele Both Call For Stricter Driver Testing
According to Scheffler, the current rules for driver testing aren’t strict enough. But he believes that the USGA and PGA Tour are getting closer to figuring it out.
“It’s a newer rule that we haven’t quite gotten right yet. I think we have some stuff to figure out. I think, if we’re going to do it, we might as well do it right, get more robust and get even more strict,” Scheffler said. “You can test guys every week, if you want. I mean, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t.”
According to reigning 2024 PGA Championship and British Open champion Xander Schauffele, the tour currently only tests 50 players at random each week. He, like Scheffler, wants that to be changed.
“I think they should test everyone’s driver,” he told Golfweek after his PGA Championship title defense came to a conclusion with a final-round 68 to finish in red figures at 1-under 283. “It’s not right to just test 50 guys. It just doesn’t make sense if you’re in it for the spirit (of the game). The whole point of it is to protect the integrity of the field. If you don’t test everyone across the board I don’t think you’re protecting the whole field.”
Schauffele added that his driver failed testing prior to the 2019 British Open and he had to rush to acclimate to his backup. So McIlroy is certainly not alone in this instance. And it’s pretty clear that he had no malicious intent. But that won’t stop fans from needling him about it in the weeks to come.