Rory McIlroy told what he needs to come out and say publicly by six-time PGA Tour winner, ‘it would be done’

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Rory McIlroy has experienced a really bizarre last couple of months.

McIlroy fulfilled a lifetime dream by winning The Masters in April, and subsequently completing the Grand Slam.

However, rather than kick on from there, the Northern Irishman has regressed and many of his problems have been caused by himself.

McIlroy’s problems began when his driver was deemed to be non-conforming just before the start of the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow in May.

His name was subsequently leaked to the press, whilst other players whose drivers also failed the test remained anonymous.

McIlroy was angered by that, and he then embarked on a media blackout so to speak, and chose not to speak to the press after six consecutive major rounds.

However, it’s fair to argue that McIlroy’s real issue has been his lack of motivation after winning The Masters.

Rory McIlroy must come out and make public statement, Gary Koch says

Gary Koch – a six-time PGA Tour winner turned on-course commentator – believes McIlroy has handled his recent problems poorly.

Koch was speaking on Claude Harmon’s Son of a Butch podcast, and highlighted how the Masters champion could put all of the controversy to bed with one very simple statement.

He said: “Koch: “You know, having been a large part of that one side of it, media for quite some time, you’d like to think that most of these guys would be smart enough that every time we show their face or they’re on TV or they’re doing an interview or they’re up there in the media center with all their logos on and all the money they’re making from their sponsors, that this is just another opportunity for me to keep a lot of people happy. “That being said, I get the sense, and I have not had a chance to talk to Rory about this, I think he was very unhappy with the driver situation and what happened at the PGA and that it came out that his driver was non-conforming, and there were other players’ drivers that were non-conforming that didn’t make big headlines like his did.

“But it’s not like, you know, all of a sudden your driver is going 15 yards farther than it was, you know, and it’s non-conforming. I mean, you don’t know that. So I think he was a little unhappy and upset about that and how that was handled.

“But that being said, come out and just say that one time, do one interview and just say, ‘hey, look, you know, I feel like I was treated unfairly. I mean, I know other guys’ drivers were not conforming. I don’t like the fact that, you know, you guys made such a big deal out of the fact that mine was non-conforming’. And then it would be over, you know, it would be done. I will say, I think he’s in a strange place, you know, after achieving this lifelong goal of this career grand slam and winning the Masters after 16 attempts or whatever it was. And he’s, you know, he’s struggling a little bit to get reset and come up with new goals and everything else.

“You know, he made a comment, he did talk Friday after he birdied the 18th hole to make the cut there at Oakmont. He made a comment about something about it’s a lot easier to do when you really don’t care whether you’re there on the weekend or not, which was like, that’s just not the Rory Mcllroy that I know.
I mean, you know, he’s more competitive than that. So I was glad to see him play well on Sunday at the US Open and do a much better interview, and he seemed to handle last week at the Travelers well again. I think it was just a temporary blip.

“And I think he’ll be back doing what he should be doing.”

USGA chief’s public statement about driver testing after Rory McIlroy’s issue

Strap yourselves in and prepare for a long read, because this was a seriously lengthy explanation from USGA CEO Mike Whan.

However, you will not find a better, more detailed summary of what driver testing procedures entail.

He spoke to the press earlier this month about driver testing protocols and outlined exactly what the USGA are looking for during the testing procedure.

He explained, “Just to rephrase a couple of things. For the rest of the world, we test what we call CT creep, characteristic time creep, which is I’m assuming what you’re talking about. That’s essentially how long the ball stays on the face.

“Think about a kid jumping on a trampoline, and the longer they’re on the trampoline, the farther they bounce off. So we set a limit with manufacturers in terms of how long that ball can stay on — it’s tested in terms of microseconds. There’s a test, there’s a tolerance, but at the end of the day, if it’s on there for more than 258 microseconds, we consider that club out of tolerance.

“So as a service to the players, to the tours, and we do it here, as well, we do random testing pretty regularly. I think sometimes when we say “random testing,” people think — if you’re playing on Tour, you’re going to get tested a couple, three times a year, and we think the testing that we’re doing is commensurate with both the degree of failure that we see, which is pretty minimal — and quite frankly, when we see failure, at least currently, we’re seeing clubs just literally creep over the line. It’s a line we draw — we aren’t seeing when we’re taking drivers off, drivers that are, oh, my gosh, look where that one went.

“So I think sometimes in the media and the fan space, you think, we just took 20 yards off that player. We’re literally talking about an extra microsecond, and if you get within I think it’s 18 microseconds of the line and we test you, we give you what we call a yellow warning, which is, hey, be careful, that club is starting to — because at the velocities and at the frequency at which they hit these clubs, they will just relax over time.

“So as a service to manufacturers, to the players and to the tours, we provide that. If I’m being honest with you, I think in terms of what happened at the PGA Championship, it made us more committed to not wanting to have this be the topic of the town because I think when you talked about a rules violation or somebody who’s playing with a hot driver, that gets so much more sensational than the reality.

“I can tell you as a rules body, if we had concern about this incredible advantage, we would change the degree in which we test. But we think the testing that we’re doing now is commensurate with the size of both the issue and the size of the reality of the issue.

“And probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’m not even in the — I know we tested this week. I couldn’t tell you if we had failures, and if so, what those failures were at the time. I could probably go ask, but I stay out of that mix.

“I know that if we saw a trend that was alarming in terms of either how many or how far they were moving beyond, we would change the way we approach it. But with what we’re seeing today, it would be a greater interruption — the juice wouldn’t be worth the squeeze.“

McIlroy clearly didn’t do anything wrong and with that in mind, it’s really bizarre how he embarked on a vendetta against the media.

Sure, his name was leaked, but so what? Drivers being deemed as non-conforming is a common issue on the PGA Tour.

And it seems like McIlroy made a bigger deal out of the whole situation than he needed to.