Rory McIlroy wasn’t the only pro changing driver heads this week.
In his press conference after winning the PGA Championship for his third career major title, Scottie Scheffler revealed his driver was tested by the USGA ahead of the event and he was forced to use a backup head.
“Driver testing is something that regularly happens on Tour,” Scheffler said after winning by five at Quail Hollow. “My driver did fail me this week. We had a feeling that it was going to be coming because I’ve used that driver for over a year. I was kind of fortunate for it to last that long.”
Xander Schauffele first alluded to Scheffler’s driver swap in an interview with Golfweek earlier Sunday. Schauffele said he thought Scheffler “switched to his backup, too.”
The issue was a hot topic since Friday, when it was reported McIlroy’s driver failed a test and he was also using a backup head.
Driver testing and switching to backups is nothing new. Given the speeds at which Tour pros swing drivers and how often they strike the same spot on the face, the material in the face thins over time, leading to the face providing more spring-like effect and becoming “faster.” The phenomenon is known as “Creep.”
The PGA Tour instituted its current policy of testing 30 drivers with the USGA each week at random, but based it off Darrell Survey information, meaning there would be a representative sample of manufacturers based on how many drivers each manufacturer had in play. The drivers are measured for CT (Characteristic Time), which is a measurement of the face’s spring-like effect, on multiple points of the face.
This week, Kerry Haigh, the PGA of America’s chief championships officer, said in a statement that the USGA tested drivers from approximately one-third of the field this week.
Drivers failing the tests is not abnormal, especially for those who have played a driver for an extended period of time, like both Scheffler and McIlroy, who were using TaylorMade’s Qi10 (DOT) heads since last year.
‘Wasn’t that big of a deal’
With a new head in play this week, Scheffler finished fifth in the field in strokes gained: tee-to-green and was largely in control of his ball with the big stick, with the exception of a few left misses to start Sunday’s final round.
So naturally, Scheffler was asked after the round if his new driver had anything to do with the pulls.
“I think that was my fault,” he said, earning laughter from the room. “The driver for me is actually really easy. Like I said, we were prepared for it.”
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Scheffler said he and TaylorMade Senior Tour Manager Adrian Rietveld did testing two weeks ago before the Byron Nelson, a tournament Scheffler won by five, to find a suitable backup since he knew his gamer’s lifespan was coming to an end.
“The team at TaylorMade, Adrian, did a really good job,” he said. “We were really focused on getting it back up for that tournament and this one. Adrian, he did a great job getting me fit for a head. Like I said, we were really prepared. So it wasn’t that big of a deal.”
That’s typical practice for Tour pros and their reps. Schauffele mentioned that it’s not much of a big deal anymore since Tour fitters are so good at finding players multiple drivers to use.
‘Test guys every week’
Despite being one of the players forced to make a change this week because of the testing rules, Scheffler called for new protocols to go even further for driver testing.
“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,” Scheffler said. “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.
“If we’re going to test only a third of the field. If we’re going to do it right, leave it up to us as players, like the rest of the rules in the game of golf are.
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“It’s a newer rule that we haven’t quite gotten right yet. I think we have some stuff to figure out. I think, if we’re going to do it, we might as well do it right, 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.”
While testing every driver might not sound unfeasible, it would actually be quite easy to accomplish, even for a full field of 144 or 156 players. Tests only take about 10 to 15 minutes, but they need to get it out of the way all on Monday and Tuesday as you can’t leave a player with a day’s notice or less that they have to switch drivers.
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