Rumours emerged early at Quail Hollow that Rory McIlroy had to switch drivers, contributing to what was a poor weekend for The Masters champion.
Initial speculations indicated that the driver McIlroy had used to great effect at Augusta National had cracked the night before the tournament.
However, PGA Tour Radio reported that the club had failed its legality test.
In response to this announcement, a statement was issued on Saturday lunchtime during the third round from the PGA of America’s Chief Championships officer Kerry Haigh. It confirmed that around a third of the players had clubs tested by the United States Golf Association.
Rory McIlory struggled at Quail Hollow
Reuters
"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."
While there was no confirmed driver linked to the Northern Irishman, he also chose to ignore reporters after each of his rounds in the event, where he finished 47th, three over par.
With this vacuum of information, it led to speculation about the validity of his Masters win.
"The fact that it got leaked leads people that don't have all the information to draw conclusions that are not correct," commented DP World Tour player Oliver Wilson.
Players are selected at random to subject their drivers to testing before big tournaments. Repeated use of the club wears down its face, resulting in it becoming more springy, allowing for more distance to be added to drives, with strict rules in place to make sure they don’t become too worn.
READ MORE: Cristiano Ronaldo's son scores first Portugal goals aged just 14
Rory McIlory was frustrated all wek in Charlotte
Reuters
"It's just an accepted thing that sometimes you might have to change driver, and within the golfing world nobody really bats an eye at it," former Ryder Cup player Wilson added.
McIlory’s struggles at Quail Hollow added to the speculation that he had to use a different driver.
He wasn’t the only one, however, as rumours began circulating that Scottie Scheffler had to change his driver, a fact which he confirmed in his winning media conference:
"My driver did fail me this week," said the 28-year-old after adding the PGA to his two Masters titles. "We had a feeling that it was going to be coming because I've used that driver for over a year.
LATEST SPORTS NEWS:
"I was kind of fortunate for it to last that long."
He made the point of saying the regulations needed to be tightened as well: "I would argue that if we're going to test the drivers, we need to be even more robust in the way we test them.
"That was a conversation I had with one of the rules officials - if it's something we're going to take seriously I feel like we're almost going halfway with it right now."
Scottie Scheffler took his third major win at Quail Hollow
Reuters
Scheffler added: "It's a newer rule that we haven't quite gotten right yet. I think we have some stuff to figure out, get more robust and get even more strict.
"You can test guys every week if you want. I mean, there's no reason why we shouldn't."
Wilson also does not understand the need for secrecy around the club testing, "I'm sure they have reasons but I don't think they're strong enough.
"This has happened because they've tried to keep it so confidential. I feel like they may well, after this, look at how it's dealt with because it's just not fair to a player that has had it leaked and had to deal with this kind of nonsense."
