Rory McIlroy says he was "a little p***** off" that news of his driver failing a test at the PGA Championship was leaked by the media, which played a part in his reason to decline speaking to reporters during the week at Quail Hollow.
A Sirius XM report stated that McIlroy was forced to switch drivers during the PGA Championship after his regular gamer failed a test. It led to the PGA of America issuing a statement to confirm that USGA testing had taken place but results were to remain confidential.
McIlroy was unhappy that his test results did not remain confidential, especially as Scottie Scheffler's driver also failed the test - which McIlroy knew and was keen to keep to himself.
The Masters champion told media ahead of the RBC Canadian Open that he didn't want to speak to journalists in Charlotte, North Carolina incase he said something he regretted, while also admitting he wanted to protect Scheffler, TaylorMade, the USGA and the PGA Championship.
"Yeah, look, the PGA was a bit of a weird week. I didn't play well. I didn't play well the first day, so I wanted to go practice, so that was fine," he said when asked why he avoided talking to the press.
"Second day we finished late. I wanted to go back and see Poppy 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.
"Yeah, look, and also the driver stuff, there was - 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.
"Again, I didn't want to get up there and say something that I regretted, either, because there's a lot of people that - 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."
The subject of players speaking to the press has been in the spotlight this year after Collin Morikawa skipped media duties following his close loss to Russell Henley at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March.
Morikawa later said he didn't owe the media anything, while Shane Lowry and McIlroy have also declined to speak to on-site reporters after certain rounds this year.
PGA Tour players are not mandated to speak to the media after their rounds, which is something that McIlroy made clear.
"From a responsibility standpoint, look, I understand, but if we all wanted to, we could all bypass you guys and we could just go on this [cell phone] and we could go on social media and we could talk about our round and do it our own way," he said.
"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, and as much as we need to speak to you guys, we're sort of - like we understand the benefit that comes from you being here and giving us the platform and everything else.
"So I understand that. But again, 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."
The World No.2 makes his first start since his T47 finish at Quail Hollow this week at TPC Toronto, where he is aiming to win his third Canadian Open title.
He plays in the star grouping this week with Ludvig Aberg and Luke Clanton, who makes his professional debut.
