Scottie Scheffler Arrest: What's the 411?

Scottie Scheffler is the golden boy of the PGA Tour. He’s been on a run this season, inspiring inevitable comparisons to Tiger Woods. As of the PGA Championship, these comparisons may now extend to the two player’s driving records.

Scheffler was taken from the PGA in handcuffs before his Friday morning round after reportedly disobeying a police officer's instructions, causing him injuries in the process.

The Masters champion was charged with a felony, as well as several misdemeanors. What really happened?
In this article, we take a look at what took place during the PGA Championship, and how it might influence the rest of Scheffler’s season.

Background on Scottie Scheffler

In case you have been living under a rock that doesn’t get the golf channel, let’s do a deep dive into Scottie Scheffler to look at why people were so shocked at this unusual turn of events.

Scheffler is the world's number one, having held the position for ninety weeks and counting. At twenty-seven years old, he has already nearly achieved a Hall of Fame-worthy career with ten PGA tour wins (as of writing this article) including two at the Masters.

Scheffler is known almost universally for being friendly and unimpeachable in terms of character. He was the guy willing to walk away from his second Masters win at the drop of a hat if the need arose so that he could be with his wife when she delivered their baby.

That didn’t happen, and the couple welcomed a healthy child into the world several weeks later.

The point is this: Scheffler is arguably the last player—behind even Tiger—you would expect to see taken from the PGA in handcuffs.

Precedence?

Scheffler, it’s worth noting, is not the only pro golfer with a mug shot. Tiger Woods was famously arrested in 2017—also for reckless driving—after apparently having become drowsy and disoriented due to prescription pain management drugs.

The resulting mug shot does not paint a picture of a man who appears to be “better than most.”

Woods, of course, was not the first nor the last. In 2008, John Daly was arrested for being publicly drunk outside of a Hooters. He remained in police custody until he had sobered up.

Rober Allenby was arrested at a casino in Illinois—of all places—shortly after missing the cut at the John Deere in 2016.

Steven Bowditch was arrested for what police apparently describe as “an extreme DUI” with a blood alcohol level of 0.2% the night before his Friday round at the 2017 Waste Management. Bowditch shot a 74 the next day and missed the cut.

Matt Every was arrested for marijuana possession in 2010. Joe Ogilvie was arrested for drunk driving in 2006 at the Quail Hollow.

Most seriously, Masters winner Angel Cabrara spent years in jail for multiple domestic violence convictions.

All of this is to say that Scheffler’s arrest, in the great context of bad pro-golfer conduct, doesn’t rank very high on the list. The circumstances were more unusual than they were scandalous. Just what were those circumstances? Let’s dive in.

Setting the Scene

On the morning of May 17^th, a vendor at the PGA Championship was struck and killed by a shuttle bus. His name was John Mills. He was pronounced dead at the scene. It was his death that resulted in an enhanced police presence at the tournament.

Officers were called to the scene to direct traffic and assist with lane closures as the scene was assessed and addressed.

It was from this tragedy that the conditions that would ultimately result in Scheffler’s arrest were created.

What came next?

Scheffler arrived on the scene approximately an hour later. At this point, there was a significant police presence on the scene. It was dark, and Scheffler tried to enter the course the way he—and all of the other players—usually would.

Detective Bryan Gillis apparently tried to redirect Scheffler. What happened next is confusing. Gillis apparently had his arm on/in Scheffler’s car when the world number one pulled abruptly forward, dragging the officer 10-20 feet across the pavement.

Scheffler was arrested. Gillis would later need to go to the hospital to have his injuries assessed and treated.

Scheffler has described the incident as an unfortunate misunderstanding. He says that he simply misunderstood what Detective Gillis wanted him to do.

Gillis, of course, described the situation somewhat differently. Scheffler’s “failure to follow instructions,” resulted in a second-degree assault on a police officer charge—a felony.

Scheffler says that he spent the next hour shaking in his jail cell, confused, and now very doubtful that he would make his tee time.

At one point, another police officer, now knowing who he was, came in and said, “Do you want the whole experience?”

Scheffler, who decidedly did not want any of the experience, became instantly on edge. It turned out, he was being offered a meal, which he accepted.

Scheffler was released at a quarter to nine that morning and showed up to the first tee with a jail sandwich in his stomach, and rattled nerves.

For his part, the world number one did not allow the unusual circumstances that preceded his round to influence his play. He fired off an impressive five under and stayed within spitting distance of the lead for the rest of the tournament, ultimately clocking a top-ten finish.

Bigger Picture
Scheffler, for his part, remained publicly confident that his charges would be dropped. He certainly would have hoped so. Assaulting a police officer is a class C felony in Kentucky, which can be punished with up to one year in prison.

It is doubtful that anyone following the story seriously expected Scheffler to spend the 2025 season behind bars.

Coverage of the incident, for the most part, favored Scheffler’s narrative. Golf Digest sat down with a Louisville attorney who provided more context for what happened. The lawyer—David Barber—seemed to feel that Scheffler’s arrest was more reactive than it was a true reflection of wrongdoing.

The entire interview can be found here.

Here’s the takeaway. Barber felt that the conditions present at the scene could very naturally result in a miscommunication. The entrance to Valhalla is right off a busy highway. It was dark. The circumstances were unusual. Barber reflects that it is very plausible Scheffler could have misunderstood what he was expected to do—particularly at that early hour.

He also felt that the conditions of his release were somewhat unusual. It is not typical to charge someone with assaulting an officer, and then release him hours later.

The attorney said this most likely indicated two things—one, that the judge who reviewed the arrest was confident Scheffler would show up to any and all ensuing court dates. This, at least, seems like a sturdy assumption. Golf’s second coming most likely never considered becoming a fugitive.

Barber also said it further reflected poorly upon the pretext of the arrest. The attorney said that when charges are applied to someone who is almost immediately released, it could be a way of saving face.

Barber says it looks bad for police to arrest someone and then not charge them. Why was the arrest necessary in the first place? However, they also can’t hold someone on flimsy charges for an extended period. So, according to the lawyer, they charge the person, and then release them, passing the issue on to the legal system.

Is that what happened? There is really no way to say.  Here’s what we do know—Scheffler is now in the clear. His charges were dropped at the end of May.

Final Thoughts

It’s probably safe to say that Scheffler did not show up at the course that day with the intention of harming a police officer. It’s hard even to imagine this as a diva moment—golf’s golden child willfully driving around a police officer with the attitude that rules do not apply to him.

That image is not consistent with Scheffler’s persona but more importantly, it doesn’t make much sense. Scheffler, like most law-abiding citizens, almost certainly knew that when a police officer says stop, you do it.

It’s difficult to imagine him risking his image and all of the perks that come with it, on something as trivial as a traffic stop.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that the police behaved poorly either. Witnesses to the scene reported the incident as being very alarming. A man getting dragged fifteen feet by a car is no small thing.

The charges, though perhaps inappropriate, do not necessarily indicate flagrant over-policing. It was a bad situation for both sides—one Scheffler is ready to put behind him. Scheffler has already said that he will not be suing the Louisville police.

"It's not something that I love reliving, just because it was fairly traumatic for me being arrested going into the golf course," Scheffler said. "It's not something that I love talking about, and it's something that I'm hoping to move past.”