Scottie Scheffler (-9) scored 66 strokes on the second day of the PGA Championship and is fully involved in the fight for victory with 36 holes left. But of course, today his golf was almost the least of his concerns after being arrested, handcuffed and locked up in a Louisville dungeon for over an hour before starting his second round.
Scheffler has given hardly any details about the incident in question. The police report assures that Louisville police detective Bryan Gillis was “in the middle of the lanes heading west (at the gates of Valhalla), in full police uniform and a high visibility yellow rain jacket”, when he stopped the golfer and “tried to give instructions”. The document says that Scheffler was driving a “PGA courtesy vehicle for players”, a Lexus with Texas plates. According to the citation, Scottie “refused to obey and accelerated, knocking Detective Gillis to the ground. Detective Gillis suffered pain, swelling and abrasions on his left wrist and knee”, the report continues. And it concludes: Gillis was taken to a hospital by emergency personnel for treatment. His uniform trousers, valued at about 80 dollars according to the report, were “irreparably damaged”.
Scheffler’s lawyer, Steve Romines, disagrees with this version. He assures that his client “did nothing wrong” and that he had his credentials visible inside his vehicle. “He was following the instructions of another traffic control officer and was trying to enter the facilities to warm up and exercise”, said Romines. They will plead not guilty and litigate the matter “as necessary”, he added.
As we say, Scheffler has preferred not to comment anything about the incident with Officer Gillis. “My situation will be resolved soon. It was a chaotic situation and a big misunderstanding. I can’t comment on anything specific, I’m sorry. Everything was very confusing and I can’t go into what happened, beyond offering my condolences to the family of Mr. Mills (a worker at the PGA Championship who was killed after being run over this morning by a shuttle bus and who caused all the chaos and drama experienced this morning at Valhalla). I can’t imagine what the family is going through. One day he goes to the golf course to watch a tournament. A few moments later he is trying to cross the street and now he is no longer with us. I’m sorry for them”, he says.
About the incident, the only thing he says is the following: “when they took me out of the car, as I have already said, it was all chaos. I said: “I’m sorry, I’m just trying to get to my tee time”. From there, things escalated. I apologized several times, but as I said, it was chaotic, it was dark, it was raining, there were a lot of things happening… They had just had an accident. I didn’t know it had been fatal”.
Scheffler had a very hard time. “I feel like my head is still spinning. I can’t explain what happened this morning, I don’t understand what happened. I was quite upset, to say the least. The officer who took me to jail was very kind. He was great. We had a nice chat in the car, he helped me calm down. I was sitting waiting to go in and I asked him: “Hey, excuse me, can you stay with me a few minutes so I can calm down?”. I was never angry. I was just in shock and I think my body was… shaking all the time. I was shaking for about an hour. I was scared. It was definitely a new feeling for me”, he points out.
Scottie spent more than an hour in jail and a good part of this time he was locked up in a dungeon, without a clock and without his mobile phone. “I did everything I could to control my mind, control my breathing. I spent some time stretching in the cell. It was the first time I did them today. It was part of my warm-up. I was sitting there waiting and I started doing my warm-up, I felt there was a chance I could go out and play. I started my routine and tried to lower my heart rate as much as I could, but as I said, I still feel like my head is spinning a bit. At least, I was lucky to be able to play golf again today”.
Scheffler always knew he wanted to play the second round, but he didn’t know if he would make it to his tee time. “I was in the cell and I had no sense of time. The jail officials were tremendous. A couple of them made some jokes when they realized who I was, what had happened and how I ended up there. They were watching ESPN and I saw myself there on the screen and looked at the time… It was my only way of knowing what time it was, although at that moment I didn’t remember how much the starts had been delayed or what time I had mine. I only realized that I could make it in time to play when an officer knocked on the window of my cell and told me I could leave. My agent asked me if I wanted to play and I told him of course”.
In this sense, Scheffler assures that the support of the public has been of great help. “Since I was arrested, my main concern was whether I could get to Valhalla to play. It has been very nice. The fans have been tremendous today. I felt they were cheering me on very hard. I know that sometimes it doesn’t show on my face, but I really enjoy playing in front of the fans. It was nice to be between the ropes competing. It’s one of the things I like to do most in the world, so I’ve been lucky to be able to do it again today”.
Scheffler admits that it took him a while to get into the round. “It took me a few holes to feel normal. Obviously, I didn’t do my normal warm-up or routine. I’m very routine, especially when it comes to my preparation. But it took me a few holes to settle down. It was good to have a solid round today. The crowd helped me a lot. “I knew there were going to be a lot of distractions, but I didn’t know what the reception was going to be like. To be honest, it was great to have the fans supporting me. They cheered me on very hard. I felt they were very happy to have me competing today and it was a good day to come here and compete”.
The reality is that the public rallied around Scheffler. They greeted him at the 10th tee, his first hole of the day, with cries of “Scottie, Scottie, Scottie” and “free Scheffler”. In addition, some quick and witty fans had time to make t-shirts with his police file photo to cheer him on. Even, someone on hole 17 appeared with the classic orange jumpsuit of a prisoner in the United States. They all showed him a lot of affection. They took his side.
And yes, after all that, Scheffler went out and signed a five under par, with six birdies and a solitary bogey. Simply, incredible. As for the incident with the police, it will be up to the justice system to determine what happened. One of the charges against him is second degree assault. It is a class C felony in Kentucky, punishable by between five and ten years in prison. According to state law, a second degree assault occurs when a person intentionally causes serious physical injury to another person, intentionally causes physical harm to another person by means of a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument, or intentionally causes serious physical injury to another person by means of a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument. The key in Scheffler’s defense is that it was all due to a misunderstanding and an accident.
“I definitely never imagined going to jail, and I definitely never imagined going to jail the morning before one of my starts in a Major”, Scheffler concluded to close the most surreal day of his life and one of the strangest in the history of golf. Netflix is rubbing its hands.
