Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No. 1-ranked golfer fresh off a Masters win last month, has ended up in the criminal-justice bunker.
Scheffler was arrested early Friday morning by Louisville, Kentucky, police, hours before the second round of the PGA Championships at Valhalla Golf Club — one of golf’s four major tournaments. The 27-year-old Scheffler reportedly attempted to drive around the scene of a fatal car crash involving a tournament vendor’s employee, despite being told to stop by police officers — then apparently proceeded to keep going as an officer attached himself to the car, allegedly causing injuries that required hospitalization.
ESPN football reporter Jeff Darlington, who had been shadowing Scheffler during the tournament, was witness to the whole surreal affair. He described it as a “misunderstanding with traffic flow.”
ESPN reported a fuller account of what Darlington saw:
According to ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington, who witnessed the incident, Scheffler was trying to drive around the crash scene on a median. A police officer instructed Scheffler to stop, but Scheffler continued to drive about 10 to 20 yards toward the entrance.
At one point, an officer attached himself to the side of Scheffler’s car. Scheffler stopped his car as he turned into the entrance of Valhalla Golf Club.
After about 20 to 30 seconds, Scheffler rolled down his window to talk to the officer. The officer grabbed Scheffler’s arm to pull him out of the vehicle, according to Darlington. The officer reached inside the vehicle to open the door, and once Scheffler was pulled out, he was pushed against the car and placed in handcuffs.
Darlington also took video of Scheffler’s arrest, which shows the golfer being led away in handcuffs as an incredulous Darlington looks on and seems to plead with the police officers to reconsider, repeating the word “guys!” to no avail.
“Right now, he’s going to jail” and “there’s nothing you can do about it,” an officer tells Darlington.
Later, Louisville police released a mug shot of Scheffler and charged him with several counts, including second-degree assault of a police officer. In a police report, the arresting officer alleges that Scheffler dragged him to the ground as he drove off, causing “pain, abrasions, and swelling” to the officer’s left wrist and knee — which required medical treatment — as well as the destruction of his uniform pants, which were “damaged beyond repair.”
On his Instagram account, Scheffler, like Darlington, cast the incident as a “misunderstanding” and mourned the unidentified person who had been killed in the car crash he had attempted to drive around:
Eighty-eight minutes after his release from jail, Scheffler teed off at Valhalla with a birdie. He shot a stellar five under par for the day, ending up at nine under par for the tournament — just two strokes off the lead and tied for third place as of Friday afternoon. He appeared unbothered, or at least lighthearted regarding his brush with the law:
Scheffler, who has won two Masters tournaments including this year’s — and also became a father this week — was an overwhelming favorite to win the tournament before all the chaos went down. And it appears he’s probably still in pretty good shape — golfwise, anyway.
