'I was a little p***ed off' - Rory McIlroy breaks silence on PGA Championship driver leak

Though players are not obliged to speak to the media, it was a rare occurrence for McIlroy to decline the opportunity at the end of every round in a tournament and the Masters champion has now confessed that it was partly down to it being reported by SirusXM PGA Tour Radio that his driver had failed a random test prior to the season’s second major.

Conducted by the USGA, the testing found that McIlroy’s driver had exceeded the point allowed for “spring-like effect” and, after getting his hands on the Wanamaker Trophy in North Carolina, world No 1 Scottie Scheffler admitted he had been in the same boat.

“Yeah, look, the PGA was a bit of a weird week,” said McIlroy, speaking at a press conference ahead of his appearance in this week’s RBC Canadian Open. “I didn't play well the first day, so I wanted to go practice, so that was fine. Second day we finished late. I wanted to go back and see Poppy (his daughter) before she went to bed. The driver news broke. I didn't really want to speak on that.

“Saturday I was supposed to tee off at 8:20 in the morning. I didn't tee off until almost 2:00 in the afternoon, another late finish, was just tired, wanted to go home. Then Sunday, I just wanted to get on the plane and go back to Florida.

“Look, the driver stuff… I was a little pissed off because I knew that Scottie's driver had failed on Monday, but my name was the one that was leaked. It was supposed to stay confidential. Two members of the media were the ones that leaked it.

“I didn't want to get up there and say something that I regretted, either, because I'm trying to protect Scottie. I don't want to mention his name. I'm trying to protect TaylorMade. I'm trying to protect the USGA, PGA of America, myself. I just didn't want to get up there and say something that I regretted at the time.

“With Scottie's stuff, that's not my information to share. I knew that that had happened, but that's not on me to share that, and I felt that process is supposed to be kept confidential, and it wasn't for whatever reason. That's why I was pretty annoyed at that.”

Masters champion says that ‘this is a two-way street’

McIlroy’s decision to snub the media in his first major appearance since becoming just the sixth player to complete a career grand slam came after two-time major winner Collin Morikawa said earlier in the year that he “didn’t owe anything” in terms of media interviews.

“From a responsibility standpoint, I understand, but, if we all wanted to, we could all bypass you guys and we could just go on this and we could go on social media and we could talk about our round and do it our own way,” said McIlroy.

“We understand that that's not ideal for you guys and there's a bigger dynamic at play here, and I talk to you guys and I talk to the media a lot. I think there should be an understanding that this is a two-way street. We understand the benefit that comes from you being here and giving us the platform and everything else.

“But I've been beating this drum for a long time. If they want to make it mandatory, that's fine, but in our rules it says that it's not, and until the day that that's maybe written into the regulations, you're going to have guys skip from time to time, and that's well within our rights.”