Anyone merely tuning in to the second round of the PGA Championship at Valhalla would have assumed that, where World No.1 Scottie Scheffler is concerned, it was business as usual on Friday, as he completed a five-under round of 66 to head to the clubhouse just two behind leader Collin Morikawa on nine-under.
However, what made his effort on Friday particularly remarkable was it came just hours after he was arrested.
Scheffler’s brush with the law came after he drove to Valhalla to prepare for his round, only to find police directing traffic following an accident near the course, which tragically took the life of a vendor at the tournament.
An arrest citation accuses Scheffler of refusing to comply with instructions, and also states he “accelerated forward which dragged the officer directing traffic “to the ground.” Scheffler has described the incident as a misunderstanding. However, it has led to charges, including second-degree assault of a police officer.
Nevertheless, with the wheels of justice grinding in the background, on the course, Scheffler showed remarkable composure to go one better than the four-under 67 he produced the day before. Beginning on hole 10, Scheffler got down to business immediately with a birdie on the par four, before his one and only bogey of the round came on the next hole.
Anyone wondering if it was a sign that the events of earlier had taken their toll could soon put those thoughts to one side when he followed that with his second birdie, before another came on his ninth of the day, the 18th.
The American, who is bidding for his second Major win of the year after victory at The Masters a month ago, then produced three more birdies after the turn to leave him third on the leaderboard heading back to the clubhouse behind Morikawa and Xander Schauffele.
Afterwards, Scheffler was remarkably open about his day, and admitted that, given the context, his second round had been particularly satisfying. He said: “As far as best rounds of my career, I would say it was pretty good.
“I definitely never imagined ever going to jail, and I definitely never imagined going to jail the morning before one of my tee times for sure. But yeah, like I said, I was grateful to be able to go out there and compete, and yeah, it was definitely a nice round of golf.
“My heart goes out to the family. But outside of that, yeah, I'm glad to be out here competing, doing what I love.”
Scheffler also revealed that he still hadn't quite made sense of events at the start of the day. "I feel like my head is still spinning, he said: "I can't really explain what happened this morning."
He then described how his unexpected circumstances had led to an improvised warm-up routine. "I did spend some time stretching in a jail cell," he explained. "That was a first for me. That was part of my warm-up. I was just sitting there waiting and I started going through my warm-up.
"I felt like there was a chance I may be able to still come out here and play. I started going through my routine and I tried to get my heart rate down as much as I could today, but like I said, I still feel like my head is spinning a little bit. But I was fortunate to be able to make it back out and play some golf today."
Away from the course, Scheffler's legal issues still loom, with an arraignment hearing set for Tuesday. However, he thinks the matter will be resolved sooner rather than later. He added: "Yeah, like I said, it was just a huge misunderstanding this morning. That'll get resolved I think fairly quickly."
