Rory McIlroy (Getty Images)
Rory McIlroy had his driver fail testing in the 2025 PGA tournament. News leaked that his driver was labeled “nonconforming” by the testing officials. This has happened very few times. It was at least the second time that results of a random driver test have been reported. “Xander Schauffele had to replace his driver at the 2019 British Open and he was furious with the R&A for not keeping the matter private.” (from KGET article) Kerry Haigh, chief championships officer of the PGA, said, “To publicly identify players whose club did not conform can lead to that player being questioned unnecessarily,” Haigh said, referring to why results are confidential. “Neither the USGA nor the PGA of America have any concerns about player intent.”
A Rocky Road
Why is this such a big deal? Well, McIlroy has been a media darling and face of the PGA for years. This has ramped up as he’s just completed the career grand slam with his Master’s win. He’s had a rocky road personally this past year. He filed for divorce from his wife, and then reconciled a short time ago. There’s been rumors of more, never confirmed, but detailed in this timeline article by The Daily Mail. The situation of McIlroy being the only leaked name of a weekly driver equipment testing in eight years is suspicious for two reasons. First, his recent personal problems, and second his polarizing personality as the face of the sport. He famously also has an ongoing feud with LIV golfer Bryson DeChambeau. McIlroy chose not to speak to the media after the driver controversy. This includes CBS reporter Bailonis, during the whole PGA Tournament.
A little more detailed update on the “nonconforming” driver testing, and here’s why it’s different than other sports. Other sports: if you’re player tested and you’re in violation, you cannot participate. In golf, if your equipment is tested, and it’s non-complying, you simply use your backup. Let’s think about it this way. In other sports with equipment, for example, if your hockey stick is too long, or over curved, or your baseball bat has pine tar too high on the bat, all these can be accurately measured by the participant using simple methods.
Scientific Testing of a Golf Driver
The actual scientific testing of a driver head is far more involved. According to Golf Digest “The CT test is a sophisticated but quick field test to determine if a driver’s face is too springy. It uses a scale of microseconds to determine face flexibility where the legal limit is 239 with an 18 microsecond tolerance to make the overall drop-dead limit of 257 microseconds. “The statement from the PGA said, “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. 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.”
Links Related to This Story
2019 the PGA press release standardizing their club testing https://share.google/2MKPllaIA0vFa48lK
https://www.foxsports.com.au/golf/pga-championship/pga-championship-2025-golf-news-rory-mcilroy-snub-after-driver-test-scottie-scheffler-speaks-over-nonconforming-clubs/news- McIlroy stays mute; after tournament Scheffler admits his were nonconforming too. story/48c3b395c3313d152dad565f363d8fb5
The full Instagram post of Balionis for context and body language; Instagram post McIlroy/Balonis https://www.instagram.com/p/DIaY-cfRvKV/?hl=en
