Rory McIlroy had an excuse loaded up the second he teed off at the 2025 PGA Championship.
As the world discovered once the season's second major was underway, the USGA deemed McIlroy's driver nonconforming before the tournament began, thus forcing him to switch to a different club. And as we all saw, the Northern Irishman struggled off the tee all week at Quail Hollow Club and finished in a tie for 47th at 3-over.
It would be easy for McIlroy to blame the USGA for hindering his chances with a last-second ruling, but that excuse won't fly after Scottie Scheffler cruised to a five-shot victory to grab his third career major championship.
As it turns out, the world No. 1 also had to switch his driver out for a backup before play began.
Although Scheffler fought through some accuracy issues in the second and fourth rounds, he still had a great driving week.
He ranked eighth in strokes gained off the tee (4.094), 30th in driving accuracy (35 of 56 fairways), and 31st in driving distance (308.4 yards). Scheffler hit 13 of 14 fairways and gained a tournament-best 2.754 strokes from off the tee in the third round en route to the 6-under 65 that put him in front by three heading into the final 18 holes.
In terms of true strokes gained off the tee, it was Scottie's third-best performance of the season. He handled the adversity exceptionally well, which isn't something you can say about McIlroy at Quail Hollow.
Rory McIlroy has no excuse for his struggles at the PGA Championship
McIlroy was clearly affected by the driver change right away, as he hit just four of 14 fairways and ranked only 41st in the field in driving distance (309.7) in the first round.
The 36-year-old improved as the week went on, but he gained a season-low 0.41 true strokes off the tee per round at the PGA Championship and was a non-factor all week, which was a shock considering his sparkling history at Quail Hollow.
McIlroy had a chance to explain himself, but refused to meet with the media after all four rounds, for which he's taking a lot of heat at the moment.
Scheffler, on the other hand, was happy to talk about the USGA's ruling and how it can improve the process moving forward.
"So the driver testing is something that regularly happens on Tour. My driver did fail me this week,” Scheffler told reporters, per Hugh Kellenberger of The Athletic. "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, I felt like.
"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."
In McIlroy's case, he better hope the USGA wasn't listening.