Xander Schauffele 'surprised' by recent PGA Tour debate: "That's not really how it works"

Xander Schauffele says he was surprised by the public's 'negative' reaction to the recent driver testing controversy.

The topic came into sharp focus during the 2025 PGA Championship when news leaked Rory McIlroy's TaylorMade Qi10 was deemed non-conforming on the eve of the major. 

PGA Championship winner Scottie Scheffler revealed he was forced into a late switch after his driver, too, had crept over the limit. 

What seemed to surprise the general public was the fact that not every player in the field has their club tested by golf's rule makers at major championships and PGA Tour events. 

Only 30 per cent of the field at Quail Hollow had their drivers tested by the United States Golf Association. 

Schauffele and Scheffler have called for this to change in the future. 

Former U.S. Open champ Lucas Glover then opened up a can of worms when he claimed he knows of several golfers that currently cheat the system. 

The USGA's chief executive, Mike Whan, pushed back on Glover's audacious comments by explaining the governing body tracks the serial numbers of each club they test to ensure they are the same ones used when players get to the first tee. 

Schauffele told reporters before the 2025 Memorial Tournament at Muirfield Village there is simply no way of knowing when a driver is going to creep over the line. 

"It really is normal," he said. "I didn't even understand sort of the public's negative opinion on it. 

"It didn't really register in my head because I know, one, it's, like, we hit our drivers a lot, so, like, they creep and then they go over a line. We don't know when the line -- we have no clue. 

"Unless our driver physically cracks and you start hitting these knuckle balls off the tee that kind of disperse everywhere, then you know your driver's broken."

Schauffele added: "But in the terms of this creep thing, it's not like you're going to be a guy who has 170 ball speed and then all of a sudden your driver's hot and you have 185. It's not like a cork bat. 

"That's just not how golf works. You either swing it hard and hit it hard or you don't."

McIlroy struggled to find the fairways at the PGA Championship and his driving display was in stark contrast to his performance at last month's Masters.

For example, McIlroy only managed to hit four fairways in round one. Overall, his driving accuracy for the major was 46.43 per cent. 

Scheffler, on the other hand, was prepared for the change and although he wasn't the top-ranked player in the field off the tee his accuracy for the week was 62.5 per cent. 

Schauffele said: "I think the trickiest part is no driver's the same and no shaft is the same. 

"They can have all the same writing and logos on them, but the makeup of each head and shaft is slightly different. 

"[It is] a lot better now than they used to be, but it's just hard for us to sort of -- we have a trusty, our trusty club, and then you take it out and switch it. 

"Same thing with a putter, you know. No club is exactly the same. So as soon as you make us change, there's a little bit of a grace period where you have to get used to it."

Schauffele said there is no reason to believe any player is intentionally trying to have a hot driver. 

"That's not really how this works," he said.  

"It's, like, your club and you want to use that club because you know it like it's your best friend."