Rory McIlroy said to have made things much worse for himself as big problem comes to light that he now needs to address

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After the highs at Augusta National last month, Rory McIlroy experienced an incredibly difficult week at Quail Hollow for the PGA Championship.

McIlroy was never in contention to win the PGA Championship, and he finished in a tie for 47th place – 14 shots adrift of eventual winner Scottie Scheffler.

Something just didn’t seem right with the Masters champion from the first day that he stepped foot on the property at Quail Hollow.

McIlroy’s driver was deemed to be non-conforming at the PGA Championship, as his week got off to the worst possible start.

There was a media blackout from the world number two, as McIlroy chose against speaking to the press after all four of his rounds.

From the moment he teed off at Quail Hollow last week right up until he left the property, things just kept getting worse for the Northern Irishman, both on and off the course.

The problem is, most of it has been of his own making. He had the chance to control the narrative and completely blew it.

Bizarre doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Rory McIlroy makes things much worse for himself

McIlroy could have got out in front of the ‘non-conforming driver’ storyline, just like Scheffler did.

However, his silence on the matter was deafening, and now more questions are being asked about the situation.

It was really poor behaviour all around from McIlroy.

And it has been suggested by Brandel Chamblee that the rules could even be changed because of McIlroy’s actions, so that the players are actually obligated to speak to the media after their rounds.

Now Ryan Lavner and Rex Hoggard jumped on that bandwagon, during a discussion on the Golf Channel’s Rex and Lav podcast.

Hoggard suggested that the five-time major champion’s behaviour needs to be addressed quickly.

He said, “This is something which needs to be addressed. I will go back to Collin Morikawa and we remembered what happened at the Arnold Palmer Invitational when he stumbled down the stretch, ended up losing at Bay Hill, and declined to speak to the media. It happens from time to time, this is not out of the ordinary.

“What happened was next week at the Players Championship he was asked about not talking to the media and he probably didn’t answer the question the way he should have, is the best way of saying it. I don’t owe you anything is a little combative and not the best way to frame the narrative.

“I have gone back to that and said that he is right. He does not owe the media anything. However, he owes the fans. And he certainly owes the sponsors something. I would argue that Rory McIlroy owes the PGA of America something in this. He has won their championship. He has won the tournament on this golf course numerous times. He was the headliner of the field. For all those reasons he should have stopped. Now there are a lot of reasons why he didn’t stop, that goes to the driver that failed.

“I would point everyone to what Scottie Scheffler said about it, his driver also was deemed non conforming and his take was that it happens. If it doesn’t happen to a tour player’s driver eventually, that tour player has the wrong driver in his bag. Because you want them as close to the limit as you can possibly get without going over but when you hit 1000 balls over and over again at the speed they hit it, it is always going to go over the line. This happens on the PGA Tour on a weekly basis.

“What happened in this instance though, Rory’s driver failed and then he declined to talk about it. So instead of getting out in front of it and explaining what happened and pointed out that this happens a lot, I put a new driver in play, it was fine. Now the board is filled with a lot of people on social media who have a lot of opinions. That is only going to go in a bad direction.

Then Lavner weighed in on the debate with some harsh words for McIlroy as well.

He said, “I don’t think it behoves anyone. It hurts Rory, it hurts us as trying to be the liaison between the players and the fans. And I think the fans are left in the dark as well, so we are just left to speculate.
Did Rory not want to speak to the media because he was ticked off about the driver issues? Did he not want to talk to the media because he was ticked off about his play? He finished tied 47th. Was he trying to prove a point, that now he is a legend of the game, that his status is secured, that he basically doesn’t need the media any more and he is only going to talk to the media when he wants to?

“All of these are open questions that we do not have any answers to because Rory McIlroy did not talk.
I think it is a detriment to all involved if this situation presents itself.

“I would also say that if this is a leverage play to create rules and regulations as it relates to the players in the major championships or the PGA Tour, I think there is potentially something there. Where right now players do not have any responsibility, no obligation contractually or otherwise to speak to the media. It is at their own discretion if they want to do so. That puts them out of line with how every other major athlete is treated in their respective sport.

“If this becomes a tipping point with Collin and then with Rory to see some meaningful change on that front, I will love it and I think there will be a good direction for all involved, but we are not quite there yet.“

McIlroy made bizarre comments before PGA Championship even started

Something was off with the man from Northern Ireland all week.

Before the tournament began, McIlroy caused a stir by suggesting that Quail Hollow would play just like a regular PGA Tour event.

That obviously turned out to be absolute rubbish.

But perhaps the weirdest response McIlroy gave to a question all week was when he became unnecessarily agitated when asked which department of his game he would like to swap out with another player.

The 35-year-old actually refused to answer the question.

Every other top player was asked the same question during the build-up to the PGA Championship, and they all responded in a light-hearted manner.

McIlroy needs to look at his actions at the PGA Championship from this past week and make a big effort to change things moving forward.

He owes it to the fans if nothing else.