Rory McIlroy Admits Failed-Driver Reports Played Factor In Media Silence At PGA Championship

Rory McIlroy spoke with the media in the days leading up to the PGA Championship last month, but once golf balls were in the air, the five-time major winner declined every media request he received during his four days at Quail Hollow. 

In his first media appearance since the major championship wrapped up, he shared a number of different reasons why he avoided the press that week, including late finishes due to weather and dad duty back home. He also touched on the frustration surrounding his driver being deemed non-conforming earlier in the week.

Rory McIlroy was reportedly deemed to have a non-conforming driver ahead of the PGA Championship. (Kyle Terada-Imagn Images)

According to SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio, McIlroy's driver was ruled non-conforming on Tuesday, two days prior to the opening round of the PGA Championship. The report didn't come out until Friday evening, however, which suggested that it was likely meant to be kept confidential, which is exactly what McIlroy confirmed during his press conference on Wednesday ahead of this week's RBC Canadian Open.

"Sunday, I just wanted to get on the plane and go back to Florida," McIlroy explained. "Yeah, look, and also the driver stuff, there was -- I was a little pissed off because I knew that Scottie's driver had failed on Monday, but my name was the one that was leaked. It was supposed to stay confidential. Two members of the media were the ones that leaked it.

"Again, I didn't want to get up there and say something that I regretted, either, because there's a lot of people that -- 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. I just didn't want to get up there and say something that I regretted at the time.

"With Scottie's stuff, that's not my information to share. I knew that that had happened, but that's not on me to share that, and I felt that process is supposed to be kept confidential, and it wasn't for whatever reason. That's why I was pretty annoyed at that."

Scottie Scheffler, the winner of the PGA Championship, was asked about driver testing during his winner's press conference after the final round and explained that his driver did, in fact, fail testing earlier in the week. 

Nobody in the media knew, or at least they didn't mention the fact that the No. 1 player in the world had to switch drivers at the PGA Championship, which led to the understandable frustration from McIlroy who had his name tossed into the fray after the second round.

McIlroy went on to talk about the "responsibility" players on Tour have to speak with the media in a traditional sense, while explaining that it's not mandatory.

"From a responsibility standpoint, look, I understand, but if we all wanted to, we could all bypass you guys and we could just go on this and we could go on social media and we could talk about our round and do it our own way," McIlroy shared.

"We understand that that's not ideal for you guys and there's a bigger dynamic at play here, and I talk to you guys and I talk to the media a lot. I think there should be an understanding that this is a two-way street, and as much as we need to speak to you guys, we're sort of -- like we understand the benefit that comes from you being here and giving us the platform and everything else. So I understand that.

"But, again, I've been beating this drum for a long time. If they want to make it mandatory, that's fine, but in our rules it says that it's not, and until the day that that's maybe written into the regulations, you're going to have guys skip from time to time, and that's well within our rights."

McIlroy is well within his rights as a PGA Tour player and as a human in general to decline media requests, and while his honesty about the situation is appreciated, it's hard to say it fully justifies his excuse.

Outside of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, no player over the last 20 years has answered more questions and fulfilled more media obligations than McIlroy. However, speaking to the media during a major championship, at least once, weeks after completing the career grand slam and cementing himself as his generation's best player, feels like a no-brainer.

McIlroy was never in contention at the PGA Championship, and skipping out on media over the weekend wouldn't have drummed up too much noise. But no media on Thursday or Friday to go along with it created some unnecessary, and rather unserious, drama.