Schauffele became 1st to fail R&A's driver test before The Open

Xander Schauffele became the first player to see his driver fail the R&A's coefficient of restitution (COR) test since the Open Championship organizers began testing individual players' clubs last year, according to Golf Channel's Rex Hoggard.

Luckily for Schauffele - who rocketed up the leaderboard with a 6-under 65 in Round 2 at Royal Portrush - the test was conducted on Tuesday and he was given the next two days to find a replacement before the tournament began.

While the 25-year-old had no issue with the R&A testing his club, he feels it's unfair that only a random sample of clubs get checked rather than the entire field.

"I had a little bit of a run-in with them because they only test 30 players. I thought it was a little bit unfair," Schauffele said. "I would gladly give up my driver if it's not conforming. But there's still 130 other players in the field that potentially have a non-conforming driver, as well."

Drivers are deemed nonconforming if they exceed the R&A's COR limit of 0.830, which is the ratio of how efficiently the clubface transfers energy to the golf ball. The higher the COR, the faster the ball launches off the face.

Schauffele shot 3-over in Round 1, but after some tweaks, drastically improved on Friday to climb inside the top 20.

"Yesterday it wasn't really matching my bag, which was a bummer. I was getting a little upset on the golf course," he said. "Today I was testing a little bit on the range again with two different heads. But moved a few weights around and sort of found a good setting."

Tiger Woods was reportedly another one of the 30 players who had their drivers tested this week.

The R&A started testing last season when none of the 30 drivers exceeded the COR limit.

Schauffele was not disqualified because the illegal club was identified prior to the start of the tournament.