Scottie Scheffler was escorted to the back of a police car by two officers after being detained and handcuffed by local authorities outside of Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., ahead of the second round of the PGA Championship over a traffic flow misunderstanding, as seen in footage of the incident posted by ESPN’s Jeff Darlington on X.
“Here’s the thing, right now he’s going to jail and it ain’t nothing you can do about it period. There is nothing you can do about it,” an officer wearing a neon yellow traffic jacket told Darlington, who was filming the ordeal.
Scheffler, the world’s top golfer, was detained by police around 5:45 a.m. while trying to get into the golf course amid a separate, unrelated incident involving an accident and a fatality.
“When he didn’t stop, the police officer attached himself to the vehicle, Scheffler then traveled another 10 yards before stopping the car,” Darlington said Friday morning on “SportsCenter.” “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 then pulled Scheffler out of the car, pushed him up against the car and immediately placed him in handcuffs.
“Scheffler was then walked over to the police car, placed in the back in handcuffs. Very stunned about what was happening. Looked toward me as he was in those handcuffs and said, ‘Please help me.’ He very clearly did not know what was happening in the situation — it moved very quickly, very rapidly, very aggressively.
“He was detained in that police vehicle for approximately 20 minutes. The police officers at that point did not understand that Scottie Scheffler was a golfer in the tournament nor, of course, that he is the No. 1 player in the world.”
Play at the PGA Championship has been delayed and will resume at 8:35 a.m. ET, according to ESPN’s Michael Collins.
