LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY | Through the raindrops, the flashing lights, the heartbreak, the handcuffs, the mugshot, the police report, the social-media nonsense and, inevitably, the second round of the PGA Championship, a dripping sense of surrealism engulfed Valhalla Golf Club on Friday. A man lost his life crossing a crowded road in the predawn darkness and, for the longest time, the most pressing question was whether the world’s top-ranked golfer would make his weather-delayed tee time.
What happened shortly after 6 a.m. at Valhalla’s narrow entryway off of U.S. Route 60, known locally as Shelbyville Road, that led to Scottie Scheffler being arrested, dressed in orange jail wear and eventually released, all in a frantic and confusing three-hour window, seems likely to be as Scheffler later described it: A big misunderstanding.
He faces four criminal charges, including assault of a police officer, which is a second-degree felony, plus misdemeanors of third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving and disregarding signals from an officer directing traffic. He is scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. EDT Tuesday.
That will all be sorted out soon enough, though imagining Scheffler deliberately disobeying direction from a law-enforcement officer is a difficult concept to grasp.
Let’s not forget that it was all precipitated by the death of a tournament vendor named John Mills who was attempting to cross a busy four-lane road when he was struck and killed by a bus. Scheffler, whose life is founded on his deep faith, made sure to acknowledge the bigger reality than the golf tournament he was trying to win.
“One day he’s heading to the golf course to watch a tournament. A few moments later he’s trying to cross the street, and now he’s no longer with us,” Scheffler said, opening his Friday media session focusing on Mills and his family.
Despite a morning that he never imagined, Scheffler shot 5-under-par 66 in the rain Friday to sit at 9-under 133 and among the leaders halfway through this PGA Championship.
What Scheffler drove into Friday morning, according to people who made the same drive, was a flashing, blinking rain-reflected cluster of lights and law-enforcement officials, coping with a terrible situation. Confusion, not contempt, may prove to be the cause of Scheffler’s issue.
It already had been a different PGA Championship week, starting with the happy news that Scheffler and his wife, Meredith, had welcomed their first son, Bennett, into the world last week and the new dad, after three private weeks at home while the golf community awaited a birth announcement, was in Kentucky chasing another major championship, one month after his Masters victory.
Then, news of Rory McIlroy’s divorce proceedings hit like a rock through a window, tossing a layer of unexpected personal texture into the week which, when boiled down to the golf itself, has been rich with storylines.
The events of Friday morning were jarring as fragments of information were revealed and grainy images of Scheffler being put into a police car, his hands cuffed behind him, flickered on screens until he showed up for a second time at Valhalla, wearing his familiar navy pants and a white pullover.
Questions hung like the dampness over Valhalla, beginning with how events unfolded that led to the No. 1 golfer in the world in police custody.
“He was proceeding as directed by another traffic officer and driving a marked player’s vehicle with credentials visible. In the confusion, Scottie is alleged to have disregarded a different officer’s traffic signals, resulting in these charges. Multiple eyewitnesses have confirmed that he did not do anything wrong but was simply proceeding as directed,” Scheffler’s lawyer, Steve Romines, said in a statement.
Louisville Department of Corrections, Getty Images
Scheffler would not offer any specifics on the morning incident and his arrest.
“It was a chaotic situation and a big misunderstanding,” he said.
According to the Louisville police report, officer Bryan Gillis suffered “pain, swelling and abrasions to his left wrist and knee” and was transported to a local hospital for treatment. His condition was unknown late Friday.
Never once, Scheffler said, did he use his name or ask for special treatment.
“It was very chaotic, and I said, ‘I’m sorry. I’m just trying to get to my tee time,’” Scheffler said. “Outside of that, things escalated from there.”
He praised the law-enforcement officers who were on the scene and took him through a head-spinning morning being booked.
“I was pretty rattled, to say the least. The officer that took me to the jail was very kind. He was great,” Scheffler said.
“We had a nice chat in the car; that kind of helped calm me down. I was sitting there waiting to kind of go in, and I asked him, I was like, ‘Hey, excuse me. Can you just come hang out with me for a few minutes so I can calm down?’ I was never angry. I was just in shock, and I think my body was just – I was shaking the whole time.”
In the midst of it all, Scheffler was aware of the oddity of the moment. He began his pre-round stretching exercises in a holding cell in case he would be able to make his tee time, which originally was set for 8:48 a.m. before PGA officials delayed times by 80 minutes to account for the snarled traffic. Scheffler could see his arrest being played on TV news while he waited. An officer asked if he would like a sandwich.
“I was like, sure, I’ll take a sandwich,” Scheffler said. “I hadn’t eaten breakfast yet.”
More than anything, Scheffler wanted to calm down. His body continued to shake. He didn’t know what time it was. He didn’t know what was happening at the golf course. He hadn’t been aware that a man had been killed before he arrived at Valhalla.
It wasn’t until an officer knocked on a holding-cell window and gestured for Scheffler to get ready to leave that the PGA Championship came back into focus.
According to a TV report, Scheffler returned to Valhalla after his release, said “Hey everybody” upon entering player dining and then grabbed a plate of eggs before beginning his abbreviated prep work.
It was a rain-soaked swirl born out of a tragedy and, strangely, it may change how golf fans react to Scheffler. His brilliance has been tempered by the public’s polite embrace of a player whom they admire but have been slow to wrap in an emotional bear hug. What happened Friday morning created a new emotional attachment.
“The fans were tremendous today. I felt like they were cheering extra loud for me today.” –Scottie Scheffler
When Scheffler walked onto the 10th tee Friday morning, surrounded by umbrellas and onlookers, it felt as if the lens has tightened, focusing only on him. Wyndham Clark, one of Scheffler’s playing competitors and the reigning U.S. Open champion, got a golf clap when he was introduced, as did Brian Harman, the 2023 Open Championship winner. When Scheffler was announced on the tee, it was more like a roar.
Being Scottie Scheffler, he routinely birdied his first hole, the par-5 10th after starting on the back nine, a step toward bringing an element of normalcy to a twisted day. When Scheffler climbed the hill to the 12th green, the scent of burgers grilling blended with the light rain, and he was greeted with another throaty cheer.
Scheffler responded by holing a long, right-to-left-breaking birdie putt, and away he went.
There were already fans at Valhalla wearing T-shirts bearing his mugshot or “Free Scottie” on them. It’s the world we live in today.
“The fans were tremendous today,” Scheffler said. “I felt like they were cheering extra loud for me today.”
It would have been easy for Scheffler to have signed his scorecard Friday afternoon and then slipped away from Valhalla behind tinted windows.
Instead, Scheffler did what he does best. He was himself, his natural grace and compassion burning a hole in the cloudy afternoon. More than once, Scheffler sent his condolences to the family of the man who was killed and more than once he praised what law-enforcement officers do every day.
“I still feel like my head is spinning a little bit,” Scheffler said late in the day.
And his heart, to anyone who might wonder, was in the right place.
Top: Scottie Scheffler during the second round of PGA Championship (Ben Jared, PGA TOUR via Getty Images)
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