Early Friday morning outside Valhalla Golf Club, around 6 a.m. ET, John Mills was hit by a shuttle bus and died on the scene. Mills, a Louisville resident, was working as a vendor at the PGA Championship, according to the PGA of America.
Following the fatal incident, Scottie Scheffler was arrested by Louisville Metro police as he attempted to divert traffic and enter club grounds.
Here are reactions from some of the players in the field, including Scheffler, on the tragedy and the arrest (will be updated throughout the day).
Scottie Scheffler:
“First of all, my sympathies go out to the family of Mr. Mills. I can’t imagine what they’re going through this morning. One day he’s heading to the golf course to watch a tournament. A few moments later he’s trying to cross the street, and now he’s no longer with us. I can’t imagine what they’re going through. My heart — I feel for them. I’m sorry.
“My situation will get handled. It was a chaotic situation and a big misunderstanding.”
Xander Schauffele:
“First off, the fatal accident is definitely the worst thing. I’m sure Scottie would agree with that. Anyone passing anywhere near golf tournaments, it’s never something that should ever happen. That for starters.
“Then you felt like it was sort of a prank or something when you see a mug shot of Scottie. I know Scottie pretty well; we share a physio and we’ve been playing golf for a few years now, and I know he’s a solid guy and there was no mal intent by him to anyone. So hopefully he goes out unscathed. But Scottie’s a good dude, so hopefully he’s fine.”
Collin Morikawa:
“First off, it’s unfortunate for the person that did pass away earlier today. I don’t think that’s getting talked about enough, or at all. My wishes and prayers are within that family’s blessings.”
Austin Eckroat:
“I ended up getting out of my car and walking a mile and a half and having my wife drive the car in. It was a weird morning. Something I’ve never experienced. It was a tragedy followed by a weird incident.
“I was wondering how bad the incident was because the traffic was so bad, we were in a standstill, so I pulled up the local news station trying to figure out what was going on, and the first thing I saw was Scottie had been put in handcuffs, and I was like, what in the world is going on. It was a weird morning.”
Min Woo Lee:
“I don’t know, I was a bit shook about what happened on both the scenarios. I mean, during the round it was even hard to just concentrate, and I had to make sure to keep my head in the game because I wouldn’t want that to happen to anyone, and yeah, obviously what happened to Scottie was very scary, too. Hopefully he’s OK.”
Harris English:
“Obviously got here this morning, then news broke that Scottie had been detained and all that. We had no idea what was going on. That could have been any one of us. We’re all taking that same route coming into the club.
“Very unfortunate. You never want to hear about a person losing their life coming to the course. It’s just terrible. We’re out here playing a golf tournament, and somebody just got killed outside the entrance, which is very unfortunate, and our heart goes out to that family.”
Mark Hubbard:
“Yeah, I mean, I kind of was late enough where I didn’t really have any of the stuff on the way in. But just from a, I don’t know, the whole situational standpoint I thought the saddest part was that the whole thing was about Scottie getting arrested and all that, and like I said, I’m glad he’s doing okay and everything, but I mean, someone died this morning, and we were out there on the course, like I bet 90 percent of the people out here don’t even know that that happened. That’s not Scottie’s fault at all, but it’s just, I mean, that was the real tragedy today. So, I don’t even know really the whole details of that, but I hope, whoever it was, their family is doing as good as they can be and thoughts and prayers out to them.
“I think it’s a weird world we live in. With social media, I think the important stuff can kind of get lost sometimes. I don’t really know how to fix it. I don’t know what the overall message is, it’s sad that that happened and my heart goes out to that family.”
