Equipment
PGA Championship 2025: PGA of America issues statement on driver testing
Andrew Redington
The PGA of America released a statement on Saturday confirming it had conducted random driver testing on about a third of the field ahead of this week’s PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club and hinting that some of those drivers might have been deemed non-conforming. The organization stopped short, however, of saying how many failed to past the rest or which players they belonged to.
The statement, issued by PGA of America chief championship officer Kerry Haigh, came in the wake of a news report on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio on Friday that the TaylorMade Qi10 driver Rory McIlroy intended to use at the PGA Championship was deemed non-conforming.
Here's Haigh’s statement in its entirety:
"We can confirm that the USGA was invited to do club testing at the PGA Championship, at the PGA of America’s request. That testing program is consistent with the same level of support that the USGA provides to the PGA Tour and other championships, as part of their regular programs for driver testing. The standard process is for about a third of the field to be randomly tested under the program. That was the case at Quail Hollow this week. 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. 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. Players are simply asked to change heads if necessary, and all do without issue. To publicly identify players whose club did not conform can lead to that player being questioned unnecessarily. Neither the USGA nor the PGA of America have any concerns about player intent."
While not naming McIlroy, the statement attempts to exonerate any player who might have had a driver fail the test, noting that players’ drivers can go from conforming to non-conforming simple through ordinary practice and play. It’s a phenomenon known as “driver creep.”
The test conducted by the USGA at Quail Hollow is its standard CT (Characteristic Time) Test that measures face flexibility. Clubs are not allowed to exceed a certain limit.
McIlroy put a different Qi10 driver head into play at Quail Hollow, but has struggled to become comfortable with it. He hit just 10 of 28 fairways in the opening two rounds, while shooting a one-over 143 total to make the cut on the number.
For more information about driver testing and the Rory McIlroy case, read this explainer from Mike Stachura.
