OAKMONT, Pa. – Driver testing for characteristic time, or CT, became a headline at last month’s PGA Championship when Rory McIlroy’s driver was deemed nonconforming just days before the year’s second major, and it was later learned that world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler’s driver also failed the test, which essentially measures the “springiness” of the driver face.
Whether driver testing becomes a talking point again this week remains to be seen, but the USGA is forging ahead with testing at the U.S. Open.
According to John Bodenhamer, the USGA’s chief championships officer, about a third of the field, a little more than 50 players, were tested this week at Oakmont. The USGA does not publish the results of the testing.
“There’s nothing to suggest there are a ton of drivers that are over the limit,” said Thomas Pagel, the association’s chief governance officer. “It’s less than a handful.”
Following his victory at the PGA Championship, Scheffler said he’d like to see more “robust” testing and that the current process only goes “halfway.”
Since the PGA Championship, many players have called for an all-or-nothing approach to driver testing and protocols that would either test the entire field at a particular event or no one.
“We test them throughout the year and don’t think it’s necessary [to test every driver each week],” said Bodenhamer. “It would be difficult, from a time perspective, to test every driver and we don’t want to be too intrusive.”
Currently, a player’s driver is tested about three times a year at various events on the PGA Tour or at major championships, and logistically it would be a challenge to test the entire field at this week’s U.S. Open with 156 players and each test lasting about 15 to 20 minutes. Instead, the USGA, along with the game’s other stakeholders, contends more comprehensive testing isn’t necessary based on the number of drivers that fail the CT testing.
“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,” said USGA CEO Mike Whan. “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 [over the limit].”
Some players also questioned the testing protocols, pointing out that there is no testing for CT, or creep, at LIV Golf events. The USGA, which administers CT testing at Tour events and the PGA Championship, does not test drivers at LIV events but Pagel said “any tour, men or women, who reaches out for support, we would support.”
