Rory McIlroy Looked Shockingly Uncomfortable At 2025 PGA Championship – What Does It Have To Do With His Driver?

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by Katherine ManzMay 24, 2025, 10:31 pm >

Rory McIlroy became the sixth man ever to achieve a career grand slam just a month ago, and came into the 2025 PGA Championship tied for favorite with eventual winner Scottie Scheffler. McIlroy has long dominated at Quail Hollow, and has won four times in PGA Tour competition there. This year, though, he looked strangely uncomfortable, ending the tournament tied for 47th place.

So, what changed?

There might be an easy answer to that. The biggest news that came out of the Championship was the reported disqualification of several attendees’ drivers, including McIlroy’s.

It’s not an uncommon occurrence. Driver faces are, naturally, optimized to the athlete’s swing, and that can push up against the regulations. After a number of high-speed swings, these faces can be warped past the acceptable thickness or even cracked. For McIlroy, the switch was likely a top factor in a difficult tournament; he did demonstrably worse following it, particularly struggling in the first round, where he shot a 3-over 74.

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Even given the swap and the underperformance, though, McIlroy wouldn’t have been such a massive story if he had been willing to speak about it.

McIlroy declined four interview requests after and during the tournament, eventually departing Quail Hollow having done no media since his pre-tournament interview. This uncharacteristic rejection caused the driver story to balloon into controversy, taken as an admission of guilt or some turmoil beneath the surface.

Meanwhile, the other top competitor and the eventual champion, Scheffler, confirmed to the media that his driver was also among the disqualified ones. “We had a feeling that it was going to be coming because I’ve used that driver for over a year,” he said.

As the winner, the club switch was “no big deal” to Scheffler, and his transparency about it made that clear to the media as well. He did, however, point out his dissatisfactions with the testing strategies.

The current process sees only a third of the drivers examined, and the disqualifications are kept close to the vest, sparking the implication that they’re shameful. If there was more transparency on all ends about the process, players might have a better chance to acclimate to the new drivers.

“It’s a newer rule that we haven’t quite gotten right yet,” said Scheffler. “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.”