Scottie Scheffler was in unfamiliar territory early Friday morning, as he was arrested en route to the PGA Championship at Valhalla.
The ordeal had Scheffler feeling “pretty rattled, to say the least,” and he admitted it took him a “few holes” to feel somewhat normal again.
But in a somewhat ironic twist (he is facing a felony charge of second-degree assault on a police officer), the officers who were involved in placing Scheffler in custody wound up playing a role in calming him down.
“The officer that took me to the jail was very kind, he was great. We had a nice chat in the car, that kind of helped calm me down. I was sitting there waiting to go in, and I asked him, I was like ‘Can you just come hang out with me for a few minutes so I can calm down?…’” Scheffler said after his round. (He even joked that he had been stretching in a jail cell.)
“The officers inside the jail were tremendous.”
Scheffler even said he was the butt of some jokes made inside the jail “when they figured out who I was and what happened and how I ended up there.”
“This one older officer looked at me when I was doing my fingerprints and looks at me and goes ‘Do you want full experience today?’ I looked at him and go, ‘I don’t know how to answer that.’ He was like ‘Come on man, do you want a sandwich?’ I was like ‘sure, I’ll take a sandwich. I didn’t eat breakfast yet.’ They were really kind.
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER DAZZLES IN SECOND ROUND OF PGA CHAMPIONSHIP HOURS AFTER ARREST
“I’m thankful that we have such strong police. They’re our protectors out there. We just got into a chaotic situation this morning. That’s really all it was.”
Scheffler was detained at 6:01 a.m. ET and released just over two-and-a-half hours later, and arrived at Valhalla another half hour after that, 56 minutes before his tee time.
Starting on the back nine, the reigning Masters champion naturally birdied 10 to start the day. He followed with a bogey on 11 but responded with a birdie on 12.
After five-straight pars, he then ripped off four birdies in his next eight holes.
He finished the round two shots back of the lead, as Collin Morikawa rattled off five straight birdies at a point to head into the clubhouse at -11; Scheffler was -4 after the first round.
Scheffler was booked into the Louisville Department of Corrections later Friday. He was also charged with criminal mischief, reckless driving and disregarding signals from an officer directing traffic.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
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