Scottie Scheffler arrested, booked by Louisville Police after early morning incident outside of PGA Championship
Scottie Scheffler, the top-ranked golfer in the sport, was detained by police after a misunderstanding of traffic flow on Friday morning, first reported by Jeff Darlington of ESPN, and now his mugshot and more has come to light after being arrested and booked.
Per multiple reports, a “pedestrian-involved fatality” caused a traffic jam near Valhalla Golf Club. Golfers and caddies were going around the scene in order to get inside the golf club and many did with no issue. Scheffler, however, was stopped. The tournament was delayed due to the accident but is set to begin at 8:35 a.m. ET, according to ESPN’s Michael Collins.
Evidently, the incident involved Scheffler, as his mugshot and booking information was shared to X (formerly known as Twitter) by Monday Q Info (acaseofthegolf1) on Friday, after the news broke that Scheffler had been in a conflict.
According to Olivia Russell, a Louisville-based reporter for WAVE 3 News, Scheffler’s charges include, “assault of a police officer, criminal mischief, reckless driving, and disregarding signals from an officer directing traffic.”
Alas, this is far from what any golf fan expected to hear this morning. The situation is developing, and the sports world will be keeping an eye on how everything unfolds for Scottie Scheffler over the next couple of hours.
More on Scottie Scheffler, PGA Championship
Continuing, Jeff Darlington went into more depth on the situation during an appearance on SportsCenter, following breaking the news, as it’s certainly a unique story.
“Early morning here at Valhalla Golf Club, still very dark out, still rainy, there was an accident on the road just past the entrance to Valhalla Golf Club,” said Darlington. “Traffic had been backed up and building. Scottie Scheffler tried to enter Valhalla Golf Club using a side median, at which point a police officer instructed him to stop.
“Scheffler attempted to continue to go. The police officer then attached himself to the side of Scheffler’s car. Scheffler stopped the vehicle as he turned into Valhalla Golf Club at the entrance, about 10-20 yards from the point at which the police officer first told him to stop.
“At that point, the police officer instructed Scheffler to get out of the car. There was probably 20-30 seconds that Scheffler sat in the car and did not move. He had rolled down the window. The police officer — when he rolled down the window, grabbed his arm and started pulling at it. Scheffler — I believe he reached inside, opened the car door, pulled Scheffler out, pushed him up against the car, immediately placed him in handcuffs. At which point, Scottie Scheffler, seeing me behind him, said, ‘can you help?’
“The police officers instructed me to step back. I instructed I was a member of the media. They walked Scottie Scheffler to the police car. A police officer turned to me at me and said ‘You need to get out of the way.’ He told me, ‘There’s nothing you can do.’ Scottie Scheffler is going to jail.”
Additionally, Darlington took video of Scheffler being led away from the scene by police in handcuffs.
Scheffler is currently the No. 1 ranked golfer in the world thanks to his current run on the Tour. After opening the first five events of the year with four top 10 finishes, Scheffler went on a tear.
From early march through mid-April, Scheffler won four of his five starts. In that run, Scheffler won the Arnold Palmer Invitational, PLAYERS Championship, the RBC Heritage and The Masters, the first major of the year. Scheffler’s only non-winner was a second place finish at the Houston Open.
Scheffler opened up the first round ot the PGA Championship with a score of 67 (-4) on Thursday. His round included a hole-out from 169 yards on the first hole of his tournament for an eagle.
On3’s Riley Gates contributed to this article.