It simply had to be a prank.
There was no way Scottie Scheffler, the man who went into the 2024 PGA Championship on the back of wins at The Players Championship, The Masters and The RBC Heritage, had been arrested on his way to Valhalla Golf Club in Lousville, Kentucky in the early hours of Friday morning.
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Yes, the same Scheffler who had been raised Catholic and remains involved in a PGA Tour Bible study group.
The same Scheffler who had welcomed his first child, a son named Bennett, just over a week before the PGA Championship began in May 2024.
Surely it was a sick April Fool’s joke that had missed the punchline by a month-and-a-half.
But then the infamous mugshot of Scheffler emerged.
And just about everyone, from fans to pros, broadcasters to reporters, and all those in-between had the exact same reaction.
Luckily, the crew behind the hit Netflix documentary Full Swing was there to capture all the behind-the-scenes footage as those at Valhalla learned Scheffler had indeed been arrested prior to the second round of the PGA Championship.
And they had Rory McIlroy to thank, as Full Swing executive producer Chad Mumm explained to talkSPORT.com how they came to be in the right place at the right time.
“Talk about luck, on Friday at the PGA Championship, we had a camera crew in the locker room at pre-dawn, probably 6am, because Rory had an early tee time,” Mumm said.
“We wanted to be there when he got there and film the arrivals.
“We happened to be in the locker room when the Scottie Scheffler arrest news broke.
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“Every single person had the same reaction: ‘Who? Scottie?’ The last person you’d expect.
“Everyone thought we were being trolled and that it was some kind of April Fool’s thing.
“We just happened to have our cameras there that morning. If it had been the day before or the day after, we wouldn’t have been in until later.
“Sometimes you can plan for it and sometimes you get lucky. You just keep the cameras rolling, that’s the goal.”
The news slowly filtered out Scheffler was facing second-degree assault of a police officer, third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving, and disregarding traffic signals from an officer directing traffic.
It all stemmed from a total misunderstanding which led to Scheffler’s attempt to drive past a police officer into Valhalla.
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A fatal traffic accident near the course meant police had devised an alternative route for players and officials to enter the golf club, but Scheffler was left confused and attempted to get past the police’s blockade.
Ted Scott, Scheffler’s caddie who he met at a PGA Tour Bible study meeting, was one who was stunned when he heard the news.
“No chance this is real,” Scott said on Full Swing.
“This has to be some kind of spoof, or they’ve got the wrong guy.”
Fellow PGA Tour pro Rickie Fowler ‘thought it was fake’ while Tom Kim also believed the situation ‘was fake news’.
CBS Sports reporter Amanda Balionis added: “It was just, ‘How? What? Why?’ There was so much confusion around it because this is Scottie Scheffler we’re talking about.”
For the man himself, the whole ordeal happened so quickly he struggled to process exactly what transpired.
“First of all I was freaking out because I somehow went from driving into a golf course… into a jail cell, and I still don’t really know how that happened exactly,” Scheffler said on Full Swing.
“I don’t think it ever felt real.”
Scheffler was taken to a jail cell but did not have to wait long for his bail to be posted as he made his way to Valhalla to complete his second round at the PGA Championship.
Remarkably, the American put the morning’s hell behind him to card a stunning round of five-under.
Unfortunately he was unable to emerge victorious at Valhalla as his total score of -13 was only good enough for T8.
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The 2024 PGA Championship was taken by Xander Schauffele, who registered an impressive total of -21 to claim his first-ever major.
But that tournament will always live long in the memory of golf fans as the one where Scheffler was arrested.
Nothing came of Scheffler’s arrest as all charges were eventually dropped.
Detective Bryan Gillis, the arresting police officer, was later disciplined for failing to activate his bodycam.
Gillis had accused Scheffler of refusing to follow orders and accelerating past him, causing injuries that required hospital treatment and ‘irreparable damage’ to his $80 trousers.
