After a chaotic morning that included an arrest and a trip to the police station, Scottie Scheffler was out of Round 2 of the PGA.
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It might be a stretch to say that Friday at the PGA Championship was the strangest round of golf Scottie Scheffler has ever played. That is not what happened to but the chaos and confusion that occurred before he left at 10:08 a.m. at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.
While most golf fans slept, Scheffler was arrested following a disturbance outside the golf course. Around 05:00 on Friday, a tournament vendor was hit and killed by a bus while trying to cross the road. About an hour later, Scheffler arrived in heavy traffic, which was due to the investigation into the death but was not helped by what was already a problem with spectators entering and exiting the premises.
According to the police report, Scheffler entered the exit lane and attempted to go around traffic but was stopped and given instructions by the officer. The report says Scheffler “refused to comply and accelerated forward, dragging [the officer] down.” ESPN’s Jeff Darlington caught some of the results on video. Scheffler, in a statement, later called it “a terrible situation,” adding, “There was a misunderstanding of what I thought I was being asked to do.” I never intended to disobey any orders.”
Scheffler was charged with second-degree assault on a police officer, third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving and disregarding traffic signals for an officer. Afterward, Scheffler said he couldn’t elaborate on what happened that led to the arrest (although he again called it a “huge misunderstanding”) but he did elaborate on what it was like to wait in jail for a while.
He said his body was shaking with shock and fear. He asked the police officer to “spend” with him to calm down. He later saw a picture of him on TV, which was posted on ESPN. When he was released from police custody – he said he did his pre-tournament games in a prison cell – he arrived at the jail after 9am, an hour before his scheduled match time.
He said: “I was not angry. “I was still in shock, and I think my body was just — I was shaking the whole time. I shivered for about an hour. It was a really new feeling for me.”
After Scottie Scheffler’s arrest, 88 busy minutes – then it was tee time
Sean Zak
Tee times have been delayed 80 minutes due to a fatal accident. Despite the urgent warm-up and difficult conditions from the beginning of the day, Scheffler was greeted with thunderous support from the gallery when he reached the 10th tee.
Then? Build a bird. Then you do a lot more. Scheffler shot an under 66 to get to nine under for the tournament, easily putting him in contention for the weekend. (Collin Morikawa leads at 11 under, and the afternoon wave is still on the way.)
“I didn’t really understand what happened this morning,” Scheffler said. “What I focused on after being arrested was wondering if I would be able to come back and play, luckily I was able to do that. It was great to put together a strong round today.”
Starting on the back nine, Scheffler hit a 3-foot par on the par-5 10th and made his birdie. He went bogey-birdie on the next two before making another birdie on the 18th to move to one under. He added birdies on 2 and 4 to give him three in the five-hole stretch.
On the par-5 7th, he missed the green with his second shot, but rolled to 19 feet and made the putt to 9 under. He ended his day by getting up and down to save the 9th hole.
Scheffler now has a tee time on the weekend, and is looking for his fifth win in his six starts – including a second straight major title.
But after Friday morning, golf is unlikely to be the only topic of conversation going forward.
“I still feel like my head is spinning a little bit,” Scheffler said. “But I was lucky that I was able to play golf again today.”
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