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On Thursday and Friday at the PGA Championship, Xander Schauffele, Rory McIlroy, and Scottie Scheffler played together. The numbers one, two, and three players in the world all made the cut, but not without some drama. Scheffler was talking about mud balls, the defending champ, Schauffele, needed a Friday charge to make the weekend, and McIlroy was disastrous after his Masters win. But then, news broke that McIlroy was using a backup driver after his original driver failed random testing during the week. Schauffele said on Sunday that he is not the only one.
“I think Scott is winning the tournament, and I think he switched to his backup, too,” Schauffele said, per Adam Schupak of Golfweek.
There is no allegation hurled at Scheffler here that would tarnish his PGA Championship win. Schauffele only points it out to say that the testing only becomes a story when players play poorly. McIlroy started the tournament hitting only four fairways on Thursday.
Schauffele also said that the testing, which takes place on the PGA Tour as well, is not thorough enough to truly enforce the rules. “I think they should test everyone’s driver,” he said, per Schupak. “It’s not right to just test 50 guys. It just doesn’t make sense if you’re in it for the spirit (of the game). The whole point of it is to protect the integrity of the field. If you don’t test everyone across the board, I don’t think you’re protecting the whole field.
The PGA Championship was the site of Schauffele's first major championship last year, which he immediately backed up at The Open in July. It could have been a coronation for McIlroy, who has won four times at Quail Hollow in his career and is coming off his Masters win. But it is Scheffler who emerged from that group to take a commanding lead into Sunday.
