The surreal Scottie Scheffler situation that overshadowed golf during the second round of the PGA Championship left some players wondering if they should have played golf at all.
Will Zalatoris, a longtime friend of Scheffler, told reporters after the round Friday that a small group of players discussed not playing after the death of a pedestrian and Scheffler’s arrest on charges of assaulting a police officer, according to The Athletic.
The conversation reportedly lasted about 20 to 30 minutes and saw the players considering the idea of approaching the PGA about postponement:
“Some guys were talking about it and wondering if we should play today,” Zalatoris said. “At one point there was a group of guys in the locker room talking about going to the PGA of America, but I think it was dead in the water in the locker room. It was bizarre. We just didn’t know… when Scottie would get out, no details.”
The hours before the second round were marred by the death of John Mills, a security guard who was hit by a bus outside Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville. The aftermath caused major traffic problems, leading to a police officer trying to prevent Scheffler from entering the club and arresting him as the world number 1 reportedly drove past him.
Scheffler later released a statement saying the incident was “a big misunderstanding”, while his lawyer disputed the police’s description of events.
These traffic problems also affected the other golfers, with Zalatoris opting to walk the last half mile to Valhalla alongside Cameron Young.
Zalatoris said that in retrospect, tournament organizers should have delayed the start of Friday’s round by four to five hours to deal with the fatal accident and traffic:
“The fatal accident happened, hey, maybe we shouldn’t try to rush into this thing. It happened right in front of the gate. Let’s move this up three to four hours or something, and then we can make it up over the weekend. When it happened to Scottie, we were all shocked and didn’t know what to do, think or say,” Zalatoris said. “In retrospect, maybe a four or five hour delay just to let the (Louisville Metropolitan Police Department) do their business and let them deal with everything that happened because a life was lost and get us as normal as possible came in, and unfortunately the number 1 in the world was arrested. This is the world of golf right now to a T. There is no such thing as normality.”
At least the situation didn’t seem to affect Scheffler once he was knocked off. After being taken downtown, booked into jail and quickly released, the 2024 Masters champion returned to the course and shot a 5-under 66 to move into a tie for fourth place on Friday.
Scheffler enters the third round three strokes behind leader Xander Schauffele.
