The PGA Championship should have been a victory lap for Rory McIlroy. He was finally unburned by the quest to show he could still be the player he once was, the career Grand Slam had been completed. Freed up from the existential weight,

Most notably, though, Balionis took to social media and appeared to fire a veiled shot at McIlroy, thanking guys like Bryson DeChambeau and Jon Rahm for joining her for post-round interviews after their rounds on Sunday, despite losing in the end.

Heading into the weekend, it was reported that McIlroy had to switch out his driver because his regular driver was deemed non-conforming to USGA standards. While the PGA and USGA dismissed that anything nefarious was behind a non-conforming test result, McIlroy's absence for four consecutive days of media was not a great look for him.