No. 1 ranked golfer Scottie Scheffler arrested before start of PGA Championship
The world’s No. 1 ranked golfer, Scottie Scheffler, was arrested by Louisville Metro Police on Friday morning after trying to drive into the entrance of Valhalla Golf Club, the site of this week's PGA Championship.
Traffic outside the golf course had been at a standstill after a male pedestrian was struck and killed by a shuttle bus around 5 a.m.
Scheffler faces charges of second-degree assault of a police officer, third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving, and disregarding traffic signals from an officer directing traffic.
Scheffler was released at 8:40 a.m. ET and headed to Valhalla. The assault charge is a felony; the others are misdemeanors.
According to ESPN’s Jeff Darlington, who witnessed and videoed the incident, posted on X that "a misunderstanding with traffic flow led to (Scheffler's) attempt to drive past a police officer.”
Scheffler was trying to drive around the crash scene on a median. At that point, a police officer instructed Scheffler to stop, but Scheffler continued to drive roughly 15 to 20 yards towards the entrance of the golf course.
A police officer then attached himself to the side of Scheffler’s vehicle as he drove, and then he stopped the car. Scheffler was removed from his vehicle and placed in handcuffs by the police officer, according to Darlington.
While all this was happening, Darlington continued to film the incident. At one point, you can hear Scheffler turn to Darlington and ask him, “Can you help?”
"You need to get out of the way," the officer told Darlington. "Right now, he's going to jail, and there's nothing you can do about it."
While on an appearance with ESPN, Darlington said police told Scheffler to stop (driving).
"They told him to stop," Darlington said while on ESPN. "When he didn't stop, the police officer attached himself to the vehicle. Scheffler then traveled another 10 yards before stopping the car. The police officer then grabbed at his arm attempting to pull him out of the car before Scheffler eventually opened the door, at which point the police officer pulled Scheffler out of the car, pushed him up against the car and immediately placed him in handcuffs."
The reigning Master's champion, shot a 4-under-par 67 in Thursday's opening round and is tied for 12th. Scheffler was released and arrived at the golf course around 9:15 a.m. His tee time for round two starts at 10:08 a.m.