‘It was supposed to stay confidential’ – Rory McIlroy ‘p***ed off’ after private information is leaked
RORY McILROY was “p***ed off” that news of his driver failing technical standards was leaked at last month’s USPGA Championship.
Two days before the tournament, the club was pulled from his bag after official testing showed it crossed the ‘trampoline effect’ threshold — when the club face becomes more springy.
Failures are supposed to be confidential with no blame attached to the player but the news broke on the Friday evening.
World No 1 Scottie Scheffler’s driver also failed but that never became public until he revealed it at his winner’s press conference.
Masters champ McIlroy, 36, left Quail Hollow without speaking a word in public.
Ahead of teeing up in the Canadian Open, which starts today, the Northern Irishman said: “I was a little p***ed off because I knew that Scottie’s driver had failed but my name was the one that was leaked. It was supposed to stay confidential.
“I didn’t want to get up there and say something that I regretted, either, because I’m trying to protect Scottie, I don’t want to mention his name.”
He went on to add: “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.
“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.
“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.
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“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.”
Scheffler won the PGA Championship last month, marking his third major title.
He finished at 11-under 273, five strokes clear of the field in Charlotte.