LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Scottie Scheffler put his head down on the scorer’s table Sunday and practically fell asleep.
It’s been that kind of week at the PGA Championship.
The pre-tournament favorite was part of a confusing and chaotic situation Friday at Valhalla when he was arrested following a traffic incident with a police officer while trying to enter the course.
Scheffler was booked on four charges – the most serious, second-degree assault of an officer – and released after about an hour in jail. He made it to the course in time for his second round, shot 66 and was firmly in contention heading into the weekend.
But that’s when, Scheffler said, the magnitude of what had transpired finally caught up to him.
Throughout the day Friday he’d had only a plate of eggs and a few pieces of bacon, and he realized at 9 p.m. that he hadn’t yet eaten dinner.
“And I wasn’t hungry,” he said. “That was a strange feeling, so obviously my body was a bit off with what had happened in the morning.”
Scheffler said Saturday morning was different, as well, as he waited around for his mid-afternoon tee time. He told Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis that that’s when he spoke with his attorney for about 30 minutes, as he began to understand the gravity of the situation.
Scheffler suffered a rough start to his round, making some uncharacteristic mistakes around the green, and ultimately signed for a 2-over 73 to knock himself out of contention. It also snapped a streak of 42 consecutive rounds of par or better on the PGA Tour, which was 10 shy of Tiger Woods’ all-time record.
“Did I feel like myself? Absolutely not. Was my warmup the way it usually is and the distractions the way they normally are? Absolutely not,” Scheffler said. “But I’m not going to sit here and say that’s why I went out and played a bad round of golf yesterday.
“I got arrested Friday morning and I showed up here and played a good round of golf as well. I’ve gotten better throughout my career of leaving the off-course distractions at home and keeping a pretty quiet personal life, and this week, obviously, that was not the case. I’m not going to sit here and say that I played poorly yesterday because of what happened on Friday. I just had a bad day out on the course, and I was proud of how I came out here and bounced back today.”
After an opening bogey in his final round, Scheffler played 7 under the rest of the way to post a 65. When he finished his round, he was once again inside the top 10.
Afterward, Scheffler said that he was more tired than usual following a tournament – a noteworthy admission seeing how he’d just won four of his past five starts. He said he was uncertain about his plans for the next few days – his arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday – but he was still planning to play next week at Colonial.
“I’m just wondering what time bedtime is,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out how quickly I can get home from here, and that’s pretty much it. I’m just fairly tired and ready to get home.”
