One of the most discussed and controversial topics during the week of the PGA Championship was related to the tests carried out on some players’ drivers. This is known as the CT, characteristic time test, with which the PGA Tour, in a sophisticated but quick field test, determines if a driver’s face is too elastic, in which case the club in question is declared non-conforming.
One of those affected was the eventual winner, Scottie Scheffler, who acknowledged in his press conference as the tournament champion that his driver had been one of those tested this week and that he had to change it. However, he did not want to blame this decision for the fact that several of his tee shots veered to the left… “No, no, I think that was my fault,” he admitted with a laugh.
“Driver testing is something common on the tour. My driver failed me this week. We had a feeling it was going to happen because I had been using it for over a year. I think I was lucky it lasted that long,” explained Scottie. However, he also warned by saying: “I would say that if we are going to test the drivers, we need to be even more rigorous in how we do it. It’s something I discussed with one of the referees: if it’s something we’re going to take seriously, I think right now we’re doing things halfway.”
The Number One refers to the fact that these tests only affect approximately one-third of the participants in each event as they are carried out by a single operator: “If we’re only going to test a third of the participants… If we’re going to do it right, let’s leave it in the hands of the players, like the rest of the golf rules. It’s a new rule that we haven’t fully understood yet. I think there are some things we need to clarify. If we’re going to do it, better do it right, be more rigorous and even stricter. Players can be tested every week if desired. There’s no reason not to.”
Scheffler wanted to downplay the fact that his driver was declared non-conforming: “The driver is very easy for me. As I said, we were prepared for it. I had been using my driver for over a year. With the amount of training I do, I felt fortunate that it lasted so long. The TaylorMade team, Adrian, did a really good job. In fact, the week of the Byron, we were very focused on getting it back for that tournament and for this one. Adrian did a great job adjusting the head for me. As I said, we were very prepared. So it wasn’t a big deal.”
Someone who didn’t seem to take the matter as naturally was Rory McIlroy, who curiously did not speak to the official media of the PGA Championship after any of the four rounds of the tournament, something unusual for one of the big stars present at Quail Hollow. The Northern Irishman didn’t seem pleased with how the issue of his driver being declared non-conforming was handled just a month after winning the Masters, giving the impression that his victory was being questioned.
Rory took the test with his famous TaylorMade Qi10 driver. This CT test uses a microsecond scale to determine the flexibility of the club face, where the legal limit is 239 with a tolerance of 18 microseconds, giving an overall maximum limit of 257 microseconds. It’s basically like having a speed limit of 65 kilometres per hour but knowing you’ll only be fined if you go 72.
The problem arises in the tolerance, as it has to do with the measuring device used. The PGA Tour randomly checks drivers throughout the season and at some specific events, the USGA can even check additional drivers found in team vans to prevent any issues during each event.
At the PGA Championship, this test was carried out at the request of the PGA of America and, although the results were not disclosed, Scottie revealed his non-conforming result and McIlroy‘s case also seems clear. These tests are often conducted by manufacturers at their R&D centres, and players can even do them in the equipment brand trailers at each tournament. But the machines that perform them have variations and may not fully align in tolerance with the one used by the USGA, leading to these situations.
Exceeding the elasticity in the driver’s face is not always an advantage in itself, as some experts in GolfDigest assure, it can cause unpredictable shots, diverting the ball and leading to errors. The so-called ‘CT creep‘ is also studied, which makes a driver that was once conforming, become non-conforming after many hits by a player with very high swing speed (something quite common on the US professional circuit).
For Rory, the matter is serious because after using the TaylorMade Qi10 driver last year, after three rounds at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March with the Qi35, he spent nearly a thousand dollars on an Uber to have his Qi10 driver brought to the tournament from his home in South Florida to Orlando so he could use it in the final round. So it’s assumed his Qi10 has many miles on it… There’s no way to know if his poor performance at the PGA Championship was due to that last-minute driver change because of the CT test, but what does seem clear is that Rory wasn’t happy with how it was handled…
