Blake Davis
LOUISVILLE – During his march to the second tee box at Valhalla Golf Club on Friday afternoon, Scottie Scheffler almost certainly heard a fan yell, “Start a GoFundMe, Scottie. We’ll help you!”
If you had explained earlier this week why a random golf aficionado in Kentucky would offer to financially help a man who has won over $61 million in official PGA Tour money over the course of his career, you wouldn’t have done it. – – in a million guesses – were able to figure out why.
Scheffler, whose biggest personal flaw so far appears to have been a comical inability to wear a vest before and after hitting shots during the cold 2022 Masters (which he won), was arrested on the way to the golf course on Friday morning. The world’s No. 1 player has been charged with second-degree assault on a police officer, third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving and failure to comply with a police officer’s traffic signals following a chaotic incident stemming from a crash. unrelated pedestrian fatality on the road that morning.
Scheffler left a few hours later and shot an impressive 66 (especially given the circumstances), later saying that the entire incident was “a chaotic situation and a huge misunderstanding.” He seemed confident after the round that he did nothing wrong, and reporting from ESPN’s Jeff Darlington seemed to support that sentiment. Of course, the police report was less genius.
Regardless of what Scheffler’s legal future holds, what was undeniable on Friday during the somber, soggy second round at Valhalla is that the best golfer on the planet – someone who has won four of his last five tournaments – saw himself being arrested on a television. while sitting in a jail cell in Louisville trying to calculate whether it would be possible to get back on course for his 10:08 a.m. ET game time.
As he waited, he stretched. In his cell. In preparation for the second round of a major. To call the entire episode bizarre or absurd may be understating it.
Scheffler managed to get back on the golf course and had the second-best round of the day by the time he finished, a 5-under 66 bettered only by Collin Morikawa’s 6-under 65. Scheffler sat two strokes behind club leader Morikawa after the morning surge, and is expected to be in the top five of the leaderboard heading into the weekend.
Friday’s round made you believe Scheffler could shoot 66 with his hands tied behind his back, which is almost what he tried.
It was all so surreal. Being arrested and photographed in an orange jumpsuit in the morning. Shooting 66 and asserting his will on a major championship course in the afternoon. Throughout the day, fans on the property dressed in custom Scheffler shirts – some said “Free Scheffler,” others displayed his photo or a photoshopped photo of Scheffler as “Prison Mike,” Michael Scott’s alter ego on “The Office” – – shouted “Scottie! Scottie! Scottie!”
“The fans were tremendous today,” he said. “I felt like they were really rooting for me today. I know sometimes you can’t see it on my face, but I really enjoy playing in front of the fans. The support I’ve received over the last few months here has been tremendous. and I’m very grateful for that.”
The most notable part of the entire saga was also the least unusual: Scottie Scheffler, who has shot all 41 professional rounds in 2024 for par or better, shot a 66 for the tenth time this year. During a normal main round, this would be impressive for anyone, even the #1 player in the world. On a day when Scheffler was literally told to roll up his cell rug and head to the field, arriving less than an hour before game time?
This is almost inconceivable.
“It probably took a few holes to make it look normal,” Scheffler explained. “Obviously, I haven’t had my normal warm-up and I generally stick to my routine. I’m a very routine guy, especially when it comes to my preparation. It’s good to be there inside the ropes competing. It’s one of my favorite things to do in the world, so I was lucky enough to be able to come here and do it again today.”
66 hours after being arrested is emblematic of Scheffler’s greatest gift. No, it’s not his otherworldly footwork that allows him to find the center of the clubface on repeat, nor his overall skill, as he has led the world in strokes gained off the tee, approach and overall since January 1st. nor that he is possibly the best golf course strategist in the world.
Scheffler’s secret skill and greatest gift is his ability to be the eye of the storm.
When everything around him is chaos – no matter how he finds it – Scheffler is able to keep his head and hands, calmly walk to the first tee and sign a 66 a few hours later.
At the Players Championship, a neck injury nearly derailed Scheffler. At the Masters, it was the imminent birth of his now newborn son. At every turn, golf throws itself in front of Scheffler as if he wants to protect all the records and history he seeks to destroy. And yet, in each case, he managed to set it aside.
Golfers are a notoriously mellow bunch. Shortly after Scheffler was arrested, two-time major champion John Daly withdrew from the PGA due to a thumb injury. It doesn’t take much to get in the way of these athletes who hit the ball with their stick and go after it to do it again.
And yet, mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually, Scheffler seems immune to being shaken or thrown off balance.
He has spoken many times in recent years about being present at all times. Not just on the course. In a world that is distorted in one way or another with each new notification and touch device, Scheffler’s mind seems settled. Maybe it’s this mental state that allowed him to get back into the routine so quickly; others certainly would not have been able to pull themselves together in the same way.
“I was shaking,” admitted Scheffler. “I would say I’m in shock and scared. Coming here and trying to play today was definitely a challenge, but I did my best to control my mind, control my breathing. Basically, just calm down so I can come here and try and playing golf, I knew there would be a lot of distractions, but I didn’t know how it would be received.
“To be honest with you, it was great to have the fans behind me. They were really rooting for me. I felt like they were really happy to see me competing today, and it was a good day to come here and compete.”
It’s hard to imagine another player in this area who could have been arrested six hours earlier and had his name shouted as he walked off the field, as Scheffler did on Friday. And yet, he got the benefit of the doubt. Try to find someone – a player, caddy, member of the media or otherwise – who has something negative to say about Scheffler.
While there is still much to be resolved legally, Scheffler’s handling of what he believed to be a major misunderstanding – praising the police officers who took him to prison and noting how kind they were to him throughout the process – is emblematic of his mentality and temperament.
Despite a sometimes stoic demeanor, Scheffler doesn’t take himself too seriously. During the Masters, with the entire world chattering about his impending fatherhood, Scottie laughed that he and his wife, Meredith, felt completely unprepared. (There’s no better way to be a parent than this.)
Combine these two traits – the ability to be present and the unwillingness to take himself too seriously – and it’s not surprising that Scheffler was able to shut the world down and once again destroy this field on a day when he needed to keep up with the rhythm. with Xander Schauffele and Collin Morikawa, who started to escape everyone a little.
“It was nice to be able to get on the ropes and do what I love to do,” Scheffler said. “I love competing here on the Tour; I love playing in major championships. I’ve stayed in the tournament now with a pretty chaotic day, so I’m going to get out of here and focus. to rest a little and recover and prepare for a difficult routine in the last two days. And we’ll see how the leaderboard shakes out, but I hope it’s not too far away from tomorrow.”
Scheffler has long shown that he has the ability to silence the universe while operating in a world few have ever entered. What Friday precipitated, however, was the emergence of a new question that should put some fear into anyone playing Scheffler right now.
If getting arrested and nearly missing the major championship tee time during the contest – not just for the tournament, but for the calendar year’s Grand Slam – doesn’t affect Scheffler’s ability to lock in, make six birdies and shoot himself to the top of a star-studded leaderboard… what in the world can?
