Chaotic organisation looks more at fault than Scottie Scheffler
If it had been a plot to persuade a reticent public that golf can be interesting, the writer’s next assignment would be Hollywood and creating the screenplay for Stephen King’s latest movie. Who could have come up with this narrative?
If it had been a plot to persuade a reticent public that golf can be interesting, the writer’s next assignment would be Hollywood and creating the screenplay for Stephen King’s latest movie. Who could have come up with Friday’s narrative? Best player in the world, on his way to an early-morning tee-time in the second round of a major championship, gets pulled from his car, handcuffed and taken to a cell at a nearby police station.
Though the player is unsure what he’s done wrong, they take his phone, ask him to remove his polo shirt and give him an orange jumpsuit. For the mugshot that will be posted online by the Louisville Metropolitan Department of Corrections, there is the faintest hint of a smile or at least the Scottie Scheffler expression that is the precursor to a smile.
At the station an officer asks if he wants “the full experience?” This being a debut appearance in police custody, he admits to ignorance and says he doesn’t know how to answer. “Come on, man, you want a sandwich?” the copper asks. “I’ll take a sandwich,” Scheffler replies.
His body is shaking, his heart beating much faster than normal, but his instinct is to accept the kindness.Afterwards, when explaining how chaotic the experience had been, Scheffler will say one of the problems was that the officer taking his details couldn’t find him in the system. He was asked why he hadn’t told them he was “Scottie Scheffler or the world’s No 1 golfer”.
“I did numerous apologies and whatever, but it was chaotic, it’s dark, it was raining, there’s a lot of stuff going on,” Scheffler said. “They had just had an accident. I didn’t know what happened at the time, other than there was an accident. I didn’t know that it was fatal. Like I said, my heart goes out to the family. But no, at no point did I try to name-drop myself to defuse the situation. I just tried to remain as calm as possible and just follow instructions.”
That’s the key to Scheffler. Even in the most fraught situation, there wasn’t the remotest chance he would try to use his name or status to make things better. In this world of billionaire athletes, so-called superstars, he is an outlier. Of all the players on the PGA Tour, he is the one least likely to have his head turned by the hundreds of millions the Saudis sprinkle, confetti-like, on his fellow professionals.
We don’t know precisely what happened at 6am on Friday. The relevant facts are that, an hour before, John Mills, a 69-year-old man from the tournament’s host city, Louisville, was walking towards the entrance to the golf course when struck and killed by a tournament shuttle bus. After the accident, traffic came to a standstill and by the time Scheffler got close to the entrance, he was thinking about what needed to be done before his 8.48am tee-time.
His stretching routine, breakfast, warming up on the range, time on the putting green. It is easy to imagine he was getting a little anxious, for he is a player who leans heavily on his pre-round routine. He says there was a misunderstanding between him and those who were directing the traffic. His belief is that he was given the go-ahead to move from the line of stationary cars and on to the other side of the road to get to the entrance.
Bryan Gillis, an officer with Louisville Metropolitan Police Department, had a different take, believing Scheffler was ignoring police instructions. Somehow holding on to the car, Gillis was dragged by the relatively slow-moving vehicle for 15 to 20 metres, suffering minor injuries and torn trousers.
Scheffler was charged with four offences: second-degree assault against a police officer; third-degree criminal mischief; reckless driving; and disregarding traffic signals from an officer. Talk about throwing the book at a suspected felon. The hearing to consider these charges takes place on Tuesday morning and, without wishing to prejudge the case, allow me to suggest it will be a surprise if Scheffler is found guilty of anything.
This view, of course, may well have something to do with my admiration for Scheffler and a belief that he wouldn’t knowingly disobey police instructions. Thankfully guilt or innocence will be determined by an unbiased judge.
What is beyond argument is the lack of organisation that underpinned access to the golf course through the first two rounds of the US PGA Championship. On Thursday morning, a shuttle bus and an SUV collided at precisely the point where Mills would lose his life 24 hours later. Speaking about what happened to Scheffler, fellow player Harris English thought he understood why things unfolded as they did.
“That could have been any one of us,” English said. “We’re all taking that same route coming into the club ... It’s a lot of traffic cones and not really knowing what lane you’re going to be in. Definitely a bit more hectic than we’re used to getting into the golf course; dark, raining, it’s hard to see anyway and you’ve got a lot of lights around, you’ve got a lot of people yelling and pointing and all this stuff. It was very chaotic.”
On Monday, three days before the start of the tournament, one of the favourites, Will Zalatoris, rang his parents and advised them not to come to Louisville because of difficulties getting to and from the course. On the morning of Mills’s death, Zalatoris and at least two fellow players abandoned their cars and walked the last mile.
Scheffler has said he is not “an expectations guy,” that winning is nothing more than a skill he has mastered. After receiving his second Green Jacket at last month’s Masters, he talked that morning about this need to win. “I was sitting around with my buddies, I was a bit overwhelmed. I told them I wish I didn’t want to win as badly as I do. It would make the mornings [of final rounds] easier.
“But I love winning. I hate losing. I really do. And in the biggest moments, when I’m sitting there with the lead on Sunday, I really, really want to win badly. I feel like playing professional golf is an endlessly not satisfying career. I wish I could soak this [victory] in a bit more but that’s what the human heart does. You always want more. You have to fight those things and focus on what’s good.”
Golf friends tell me that Scheffler is boring. I don’t see it, though it’s hard to convince them. Instead I say that excellence, especially in a game as difficult as golf, is never boring.
THE SUNDAY TIMES
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