How the World’s Best Golfer Got Arrested and Charged With a Felony Between Rounds at the PGA Championship

Scottie Scheffler, the reigning Masters champion and best player in golf, had a bad Friday morning. Scheffler was on his way into Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, before dawn, preparing to play the second round of the PGA Championship. It was a horrible time outside the course; a shuttle bus struck and killed a pedestrian, and the collision led to what everyone on hand seemed to agree was a busy, chaotic traffic scene. Scheffler, on his way onto the premises, found himself in a tense situation with an officer from the Louisville Metro Police Department. A short time later, Scheffler was in handcuffs. Officers led him to a police car, took him to jail, and booked him at 7:28 a.m.

There’s a video of the arrest, and there’s a mug shot of Scheffler in an orange jumpsuit. But before 10 a.m., Scheffler was out of jail, back at the golf course, and about to tee off. Naturally, he nearly holed out for eagle on his first hole of the day. Eventually, he and his legal team will have to deal with four charges: second-degree assault of a police officer (a felony), third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving, and disregarding an officer’s traffic signals. Scheffler’s lawyer in Louisville says the player will be exonerated.

What happened between Scheffler’s first encounter with the officer and his arrest is the subject of significant dispute. ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington was an eyewitness. Though he couldn’t know exactly what was in Scheffler’s mind, Darlington reported that a “misunderstanding with traffic flow” led Scheffler to try to drive past an officer who was directing traffic outside the club. The officer then “attempted to attach himself to Scheffler’s car, and Scheffler then stopped his vehicle at the entrance to Valhalla. The police officer then began to scream at Scheffler to get out of the car. When Scheffler exited the vehicle, the officer shoved Scheffler against the car and immediately placed him in handcuffs.” That was how Darlington described it in a tweet. Later, on TV, Darlington reported that the officer had “attached himself” to Scheffler’s car and that Scheffler had driven 10 yards with the officer holding onto the vehicle. Darlington also reported that Scheffler believed the officer was a security guard, not a cop.

The police report from the incident expounds on that. The officer who wrote the report described a deliberate effort by Scheffler to disobey instructions. The detective said that an officer stopped Scheffler and “attempted to give instructions. Subject refused to comply and accelerated forward,” in the process “dragging” the detective to the ground. The officer said he suffered “pain, swelling, and abrasions to his left wrist and knee” and went to a hospital for treatment. He also noted that his uniform pants, which were “valued at approximately $80,” were “damaged beyond repair.” (Perhaps Scheffler can reimburse!)

Scheffler’s own statement does not address whether he accelerated while the cop was holding onto his car, but it does contradict the allegation that he “refused” orders to stop. “It was a very chaotic situation, understandably so given the tragic accident that had occurred earlier, and there was a big misunderstanding of what I thought I was being asked to do,” the world No. 1 said. “I never intended to disregard any of the instructions.” Scheffler’s lawyer said the player “stopped immediately upon being directed to and never at any point assaulted an officer with his vehicle.” The lawyer said that Scheffler was following another officer’s directions and “driving a marked player’s vehicle with credentials visible.” In the traffic muck outside a major golf tournament, it’s standard for players and tournament bigwigs to be waved through traffic. That seems to be where his attorney is alluding by noting the visible credential.

It is also at least a little bit weird that Scheffler was back on the golf course within just a few hours of the arrest. As No Laying Up’s Kevin Van Valkenburg put it: “The idea that he would actually be out there making birdies and bogeys right now if any other cop thought he truly ‘dragged an officer with his car to the point where he had to be treated by emergency medical personnel’ just truly doesn’t pass the smell test.” It’s a reasonable point of wonder. Do Louisville police typically process arrestees that quickly when they believe they’ve just mounted a serious assault against an officer? It adds to the surrealness of the day, though it doesn’t necessarily say anything about whose version of events—Scheffler’s or the cop’s—is truest.

The situation is an abysmal mess on several fronts. Most importantly, someone working at the tournament is dead. The PGA of America, which runs the championship, said the deceased person in the traffic accident was “a worker with one of our vendors.” The vehicle that hit the person was a shuttle bus, likely carrying out some sort of official business. Meanwhile, the biggest story of a major championship will be that the best player in the field was jailed after a quick, chaotic run-in with a local policeman. It’s possible that Scheffler erred terribly as he made his way into the course. It’s also possible, even likely, that his encounter with the officer did not need to escalate into a jailing. And it’s outright certain that the whole incident will be the first thing anyone remembers from the 2024 PGA Championship.

Police reports are not gospel. Louisville police reports may be especially not gospel. This particular department was at the center of one of the most infamous police dishonesty stories of our time, the sham search warrant and subsequent killing of Breonna Taylor in 2020. Right now, what we know is that Scheffler and one officer had a bad interaction. Scheffler says he was confused. His lawyer says he was following a different officer’s instructions. The officer who initiated the stop says Scheffler refused to follow orders and dragged him along the street. Darlington, the eyewitness reporter, says that Scheffler drove 10 yards with the cop hanging onto the car but that it was a misunderstanding. All of this happened in the dark, with tons of flashing lights and different people going different places with different privileges.

Where does that leave us? Insofar as this is a legal matter, nowhere. We’ll see how it goes. As a matter of sports news, Scheffler’s arrest is the cultural crossover of the century. It’s not that Scheffler is the first world No. 1 golfer to find himself in cuffs and taking a mug shot. (Tiger Woods beat him to that punch a few years ago.) It’s not that celebrities with privilege never find themselves opposite the cops. But here, an extremely rich, white golfer with no known record and a wide portfolio of endorsements was made to put on a jail jumpsuit and take a mug shot while he was on his way to try to win his second major of the year. There cannot be that wide a cross-section of society that is passionate about both Scottie Scheffler’s golf game and the escalatory, overreaching tactics of police departments. But that sliver of our population is activated today like never before. If nothing else, Scheffler has a chance to be the man who brings conversations about police reform to America’s country clubs and boardrooms. Just don’t expect those chats to last much longer than Scheffler’s time in custody.