PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — In a bizarre twist to his non-conforming driver controversy at the British Open, Xander Schauffele continued to criticize the R&A following a third-round 69.
At issue: who went public or even leaked news of Schauffele’s Callaway Epic driver failing a COR test for “spring like effect.”
Schauffele says it was the R&A, hosts this week and one of two governing bodies in golf. But assembled media and fans were unaware of the issue until the world No. 11 spoke following Friday’s second round. While there were rumblings of failed tests on the grounds, according to Schauffele, within the “traveling circus” of pro golf the failed test was known. One player jokingly heckled Schauffele and he blames the R&A.
“It is an unsettling topic,” Schauffele said. “I’ve been called a cheater by my fellow opponents. It’s all joking, but when someone yells ‘cheater’ in front of 200 people, to me it’s not going to go down very well.”
Still, Schauffele feels the R&A purposely leaked the news even as no reports were written until he stepped up to a media flash area interview microphone.
“So the R&A, they pissed me off because they attempted to ruin my image by not keeping this matter private,” he said. “This is me coming out and treating them the exact way they treated me.”
Schauffele suggests his was not the only driver to fail the random testing of 30 players this week.
“Other drivers failed,” he said. “I’ll just say it, I’m pretty sure a PXG driver failed and a TaylorMade driver failed and the Callaway driver failed. This matter should be private.”
When asked for comment Saturday, PXG released a statement from Bob Parsons, PXG Founder and CEO. “We do make a hot driver. That said, the PXG driver that was selected for testing this time, tested right on the line,” Parsons said.
Whether such failed tests should be kept private is a topic likely to be debated after this championship. But as for the possibility others players had their clubs determined to be non-conforming, the R&A refused comment when asked by Golfweek.
