Rory McIlroy skips media duties again as golf chief breaks silence on driver brouhaha

Rory McIlroy reportedly declined to speak to the media for the third day in a row at the PGA Championship. 

McIlroy, 36, endured a tough moving day at Quail Hollow Club and he will not add to his tally of five major wins. 

He was attempting to become the first golfer since Jordan Spieth in 2015 to win the first two majors of the year.

The Northern Irishman is 13 strokes behind World No.1 Scottie Scheffler after 54 holes in North Carolina. 

McIlroy carded a lacklustre 72 to slump to 2-over par on Saturday. 

Just one reason why McIlroy is so far adrift of the lead is because he has driven the ball extremely poorly. 

McIlroy hit only four out of a possible 14 fairways in round one with his trusty TaylorMade Qi10 driver. 

It later emerged that McIlroy's 'gamer' was deemed non-conforming by the USGA on Tuesday. 

Golf's rule makers (the USGA and R&A) are often brought into tournaments to randomly test drivers for compliance.

It is understood McIlroy's driver failed a CT (characteristic time) test.

CT tests determine if a driver's face is too springy. 

A USGA spokesperson confirmed they did testing this week at the request of the PGA of America. 

Roughly 30 per cent of the field are selected at random. 

The PGA of America initially declined to comment on the situation. 

But Kerry Haigh, the PGA Championship's chief championships officer, has now clarified there was no concern about McIlroy's 'intent'. 

"We can confirm that the USGA was invited to do club testing at the PGA Championship, at the PGA of America’s request," Haigh said. 

"That testing program is consistent with the same level of support that the USGA provides to the PGA Tour and other championships, as part of their regular programs for driver testing.

"The standard process is for about a third of the field to be randomly tested under the program. That was the case at Quail Hollow this week."

Haigh added: "Finding driver heads that have crept over the line of conformance is not an unusual occurrence, especially for clubs that are hit thousands of times over a long period of time.

"The results are kept confidential to protect players, who are unaware the club has fallen out of conformance and not responsible for it falling out of conformance other than hitting the club thousands of times.

"Players are simply asked to change heads if necessary, and all do without issue.

"To publicly identify players whose club did not conform can lead to that player being questioned unnecessarily. 

"Neither the USGA nor the PGA of America have any concerns about player intent."