Rory, Tiger and Tom: The great equipment controversies

There's something a little ridiculous about the "confidentiality" policy employed by golf's governing bodies when a scenario like Rory McIlroy's at the PGA Championship plays out—specifically when a driver fails testing. The idea is to protect the players, and while that's well-intentioned, it backfires when the results of the test leak. In Rory's case, the news got out shortly after the test, and because the PGA of America had absolutely no comment about testing until Saturday afternoon, it left McIlroy on an island to explain the truth—that this was a regular occurrence, that it happens to everyone (including, at Quail Hollow, to Scottie Scheffler), and that it doesn't taint McIlroy's Masters win. Except Rory didn't speak either, so for the entire weekend at Quail Hollow, it was open to misinterpretation and bad-faith arguments.

The truth (at least the reported truth, with no confirmation from the PGA of America or McIlroy) got out eventually (after the lie had spread halfway around the world, as the saying goes), and in the end, this will be forgotten. On this week's Local Knowledge podcast, we take a closer look at what happened at Quail Hollow, and then we dive into the historical record for some other famous cases where equipment issues were discovered after a tournament had ended. Did you know, for instance, that Tiger used an illegal putter for his first PGA Tour wins? Or that four of Tom Watson's seven majors were won with equipment that was later deemed non-conforming?

The general rule in scenarios like these has been that once a tournament ends, the books are closed—no winner has to return money or World Ranking points or trophies. It makes sense, but there's an irony in that if the violation had been discovered during the tournament, the penalty would have been a disqualification. It leads to a good deal of fascinating gray area, and this week, we examine exactly how each of these situations played out, what the rules say and how the results affected each player's legacy. Listen below, or wherever you get your podcasts.