Scottie Scheffler Arrest: New Testimonies Against Arresting Officer Forces Dramatic Twist in Confusing Case

What was the most shocking thing that Scottie Scheffler fans witnessed at Valhalla? Him not able to win despite being in stellar form? Shooting an over-par round (+3) and ending his 41-round streak of shooting par or better, or getting arrested on Friday morning? Safe to say, all three! And even though there is nothing that can be done about the first two, when it comes to the third, the fight is still on.

A new eyewitness report has surfaced on Scottie Scheffler’s unfortunate arrest. At first, the situation escalated when he was detained, and people thought that he would not be able to make it back in time for his tee-off and would be DQ’d. But he did. He was “rattled” about what happened but brushed it off, saying it was a “big misunderstanding.” It was ESPN’s Jeff Darlington who made the news public on X at 6:35 a.m., and now another ESPN employee was also traveling with Darlington in the same car and has come forward to share his two cents on the matter.

The ESPN play-by-play announcer, Bob Wischusen, claims it was 6 a.m., and it was raining and pretty dark. The yellow rain jackets didn’t make it clear whether they were police or tournament security officers. That’s when Scottie Scheffler pulled off in the next lane beside them. Wischusen told Golf.com that the officer (Bryan Gillis) “kind of jumped in front” of the golfer’s car. “He was pretty, you know, enthusiastic, let’s say.” Scheffler, apparently acting in another officer’s direction, slowly started pulling away. “When [Scheffler] drove past him, the cop got very angry pursuing the car. … My impression was he was kind of running alongside chasing the car, and maybe he tripped and fell.” 

The police report claims that Gillis was dragged by Scheffler’s Lexus, suffering injuries on his left wrist and knees. However, Wischusen said, “I could see him stumble, but I did not have a very clear view of exactly how you want to categorize his contact with the car.” But the 52-year-old said Scheffler was driving at “the speed that you would drive a car if you were pulling up to the front gate of a place.” The Louisville Metro Police Department has slapped four grave charges against Scheffler, including a 2nd-degree assault on a police officer, third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving, and disregarding traffic signals from an officer directing traffic. 

Scheffler, though, stopped his card after ten yards or so. Gillis walked up to the car, asking the current apex golfer to come out. That’s when the four members realized it was Scottie Scheffler who was getting arrested. Unfortunately, there was no actual footage of the scene publicly available other than the video that Darlington shot. 

Yesterday, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg admitted that there was no footage of Scheffler’s arrest from the officer’s bodycam. “The officer did not have a bodycam footage turned on during the incident we will release the footage that we have. We have not discovered any video of the initial contact between officer Gillis and Mr. Scheffler. There is some footage from across the street from a fixed camera when Mr. Scheffler was being arrested.” The clips from across the street haven’t been made public yet. 

Amid all these, Kevin Van Valkenburg of the No Laying Up podcast reported that the word is that charges will be dropped before Scheffler’s arraignment date of May 21. “Some news this morning: According to a source familiar with the office’s thinking, Jefferson County prosecutors are planning, as of now, to drop the charges against Scottie Scheffler early next week. He is scheduled to be arraigned at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.” Previously, Scheffler’s attorney refuted the claims made by the LMPD, vowing to fight unless the charges are dropped. Scheffler is set to appear on May 21 at 9 a.m. ET at the Kentucky Court of Justice. 

Scheffler’s case is turning out to be quite a confusing saga for everyone. Every day a new update is coming and it can be a difficult time for his friends and family. The golfer tried to remain calm on Friday when he was being handcuffed but was shaking the whole time. He did calm down later, though, with some external help.

How did the 2x Masters champion let go of his uneasiness in jail?

The golfer claimed that while he was being taken to jail and when he was in there, he was never angry. What he felt was sheer nervousness that left him shaking for an hour. When he was in the police car, he asked the kind officer to engage in a conversation with him so that he could calm down. When he was waiting outside to be taken inside, he did the same. Upon reaching jail, a few “tremendous” police officers “had a nice chat” with him that helped him stop shaking.

The atmosphere in the jail was never too tense for him. “A couple of them made some jokes I think when they figured out who I was, what happened, and how I ended up there,” said Scheffler. One old officer inside even offered him a sandwich, and he had it since he had not eaten his breakfast at that time.

Scheffler was arrested on Friday morning as he was trying to enter the course for a warm-up session. Unfortunately due to a shuttle bus hitting and killing 69-year-old John Millis, traffic at Shelbyville Road was halted and the officers were controlling the situation. Scheffler, unaware of the situation tried to avoid traffic and after some chaos he was arrested. He was released later on the same day and made it to Valhalla in time for the second round.

Now how things unravel in this case remains to be seen. Stay tuned to find out the latest updates.