Lon the second day of PGA Championship has been marked by two extraordinary events that had nothing to do with the sport of golf itself, but that have directly influenced the course. At 05:09 in the morning a pedestrian was fatally struck near Valhalla Golf Club and the start of the day was postponed by an hour and a half. At 06:01 Scottie Scheffler was arrested by Louisville police and charged with one felony and three misdemeanor charges. An alleged misunderstanding with an agent directing traffic ended in the worst possible way for him. At 9:12 the world number one arrived on the fieldcoming from the police station, in the car Jimmy Kirchdorferone of the owners of Valhalla, who went in person to the police station to get the current Masters champion out of the dungeon.
It remained to be seen how much the incident could have affected Scottie, an affable young man who seems to have never broken a plate in his life and who He had been a father for the first time nine days ago. The story was already in the public domain and when Scheffler stepped onto the 1st tee he felt the encouragement of the public, which showed him their support on a very rainy day. They even saw each other T-shirts bearing the slogan ‘Free Scottie’ during the tour.
As if nothing had happened, the golfer started with a birdie on his first hole. His first shot was not good, but as he started on the 10th hole (par 5) he was able to recover. His performance and results are extraordinary: 66 hits (-5) and he is already at 133 (-9) in the accumulated score (Morikawa is the clubhouse leader with -11). After the birdie on 10 he made a bogey, but on 12 he made an eight-meter putt. The one from New Jersey continued playing quite well, barely getting into trouble and I ended up reaping the fruits. In the end, six birdies, only one bogey and a very solid game despite everything that happened.
“I started the day stretching in the cell”, the golfer confessed after finishing his round. He has insisted that he did not want to talk much about this topic, although it was inevitable: “My thoughts after being arrested were to wonder if I would be able to return to the field to play and play, and fortunately I was able to do so. “When I was in the cell I didn’t know if I would be able to be competitive today.”has also commented, and of course it has been.
The sandwich anecdote
The double Masters champion revealed that the officer who took him to the police station, different from the one who arrested him, “was very nice and helped me calm down.” Scottie even told an anecdote: “And the person who took my fingerprints told me that I wanted to live the full experience. I didn’t know what that meant. ‘If you want the sandwich,’ he told me. “I replied that of course I did because I hadn’t had breakfast.” “But I was shaking, I would say in shock and fear”confes�.
Scottie, detail in another anecdote: “When I was sitting in the cell or that detention room, there was a television there and I could see myself on ESPN. The TV showed the time, and they said that the start had been delayed, and “I thought I could still get there”.
Caddy change
And if that was not enough, Ted Scott, Scheffler’s caddy, will miss Saturday’s round because he will attend his daughter’s high school graduation.. Scott will return on Saturday night to be alongside the world number one on Sunday. A close friend of Scheffler, Brad Payne, will bring you the bag on Saturday. Payne previously caddied for Paul Stankowski and remains a regular on the PGA Tour as the tour’s chaplain.. Payne played college golf at Pepperdine and is trusted by Scottie, who made it clear before the tournament that he was freeing the caddy from him, “because family comes first.”
