Who is Scottie Scheffler? What we know about world No. 1 golfer’s arrest at PGA Championship

Just hours before his tee time for the second round of the PGA Championship on Friday, world No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler was arrested after an incident driving into Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.

Scheffler — one of the most well-known figures in the sport — returned to the course about two hours after his arrest Friday morning as stunned crowds followed his every move. He teed off at 10:08 a.m. ET and went on to shoot a 5-under-par 66, climbing into a tie for third on the leaderboard.

Here’s what to know about Scheffler and the extraordinary sequence of events that unfolded Friday.

Who is Scottie Scheffler?

The 27-year-old golfer is currently the most dominant player on the PGA Tour. He’s won four PGA Tour events this year — the Arnold Palmer Invitational, The Players Championship, the Masters and, most recently, the RBC Heritage last month, when he became the first player to win four tournaments in a five-start stretch since Tiger Woods in 2007-08.

Scheffler has won two major championships, including the 2022 Masters, and this year became the first player in The Players Championship’s 50-year history to win in back-to-back years.

Scheffler, who turned pro in 2018 and joined the tour in 2020 after playing collegiately at the University of Texas, has 10 PGA Tour wins and 52 top-10 finishes.

GO DEEPER

Scottie Scheffler’s secret: How a ‘venomous’ trash talker became the best golfer in the world

What led to Scheffler’s arrest

A police officer arrested Scheffler before sunrise Friday, placing him in handcuffs after the golfer attempted to navigate a traffic backup caused by a crash that killed a pedestrian outside the course.

ESPN’s Jeff Darlington, who witnessed Scheffler’s arrest, tweeted a video of Scheffler in handcuffs being led into a police car, and said Scheffler attempted to drive around the halted traffic when an officer told him to stop.

In an arrest report, the Louisville Police Department alleged Scheffler “refused to comply and accelerated forward,” and detective Bryan Gillis was brought to the ground as a result. Gillis, per the report, suffered pain, swelling and abrasions to his left wrist and knee, and was transported to a hospital for medical treatment.

When Scheffler stopped the car, an officer opened the door to arrest him, Darlington reported. The arrest took place at 6:20 a.m. ET, the arrest report said.

Scheffler was booked in an orange jumpsuit in downtown Louisville. His newly hired local lawyer told reporters Scheffler would comply with an investigation into his interaction with the officer directing traffic.

Scheffler is facing charges of second-degree assault of a police officer, third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving and disregarding traffic signals from an officer directing traffic. His arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday at 9 a.m. ET, according to online court records.

GO DEEPER

Trotter: Scottie Scheffler is in a fight at this PGA. It's the best thing for golf

Timeline of events

Traffic at the course was snarled Friday morning after a shuttle bus struck and killed John Mills, a worker with one of the PGA of America’s vendors, the association said in a statement. All tee times were delayed an hour and 20 minutes because of the fatal crash, which occurred shortly after 5:07 a.m. ET, according to Louisville Metro Police.

Scheffler was booked at 7:28 a.m. ET and released at 8:40 a.m. ET. He arrived back at Valhalla at 9:12 a.m. ET in a black SUV.

He stepped out of the backseat and immediately entered the clubhouse, with less an hour until his tee time, and was soon on the driving range warming up. Scheffler proceeded to tee off at 10:08 a.m. ET.

What Scheffler has said about the incident

Scheffler said he began stretching in a jail cell Friday in hopes of returning to Valhalla in time for his tee time. He said after the round his head was “spinning.”

“It was a chaotic situation and a big misunderstanding,” Scheffler said.

Scheffler, who said he couldn’t comment on specifics of his arrest, said he was not aware of the fatal crash when he arrived at Valhalla on Friday morning.

“When they got me out of the car — like I said, it was very chaotic, and I said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m just trying to get to my tee time,’” he said. “Outside of that, things escalated from there. I did numerous apologies and whatever, but like I said, it was chaotic, it’s dark, it was raining, there’s a lot of stuff going on. They had just had an accident. I didn’t know what happened at the time, other than there was an accident. I didn’t know that it was fatal.”

He added: “My sympathies go out to the family of Mr. Mills. I can’t imagine what they’re going through this morning. One day he’s heading to the golf course to watch a tournament. A few moments later he’s trying to cross the street, and now he’s no longer with us.”

What others are saying

John Bradley, a Louisville Metro Police spokesman, said in a statement Friday: “While an officer was directing traffic, an encounter with a motorist attempting to make entry into a restricted area ultimately led to the driver being arrested. We are in the process of conducting a thorough investigation.”

Will Zalatoris said a small group of players discussed not playing the second round given the morning’s events. The group of unnamed players considered approaching the PGA of America about the cancellation or delay of Friday’s play, he said.

“Some of the guys were talking about, wondering if we should even play today,” Zalatoris said. “At one point there were a group of guys in the locker room talking about going to the PGA of America about it, but I think it was dead in the water in the locker room. It was bizarre. We just didn’t know … when Scottie was going to get out, any of the details.”

Zalatoris said players were concerned both about Mills’ death and Scheffler’s detainment. Zalatoris, who has known Scheffler since both were kids, explained how shaken up players were ahead of the second round of the championship. He didn’t name the players who conducted the group discussion in the locker room.

“The fatality happened. It was maybe, let’s not try to rush this thing in,” Zalatoris said. “It happened right in front of the gates. Let’s push this back three to four hours or something and we can make it up on the weekend. When it happened with Scottie we were just all shell-shocked and didn’t know what to do or think or say.

“In 20/20 hindsight maybe a four- or five-hour delay just to let the (Louisville Metropolitan Police Department) do their business and let them handle everything that happened because a life was lost and let us come in as normal as possible, and unfortunately (the) world No. 1 got arrested. This is the world of golf to a T right now. There’s no such thing as normality.”

Required reading

(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)