Scottie Scheffler’s arrest was surprising. What adopted mattered most

The previous 12 months had all of it — loopy profitable streaks, new main champs, a major-week arrest (!) and extra. With 2025 on the horizon, our writers are wanting again on the most memorable moments from 2024.

No. 15 — Charley Hull goes viral
No. 14 — LIV, LPGA CEOs say goodbye
No. 13 — Solheim Cup parking fiasco
No. 12 — Phoenix Open chaos
No. 11 — Lydia Ko’s Corridor of Fame resurgence
No. 10 — PGA Tour-Saudi PIF merger stalemate
No. 9 – Keegan Bradley named Ryder Cup captain
No. 8 — Lexi Thompson stepped away
No. 7 — Xander Schauffele’s breakthrough
No. 6 — AK’s return to golf
No. 5 — Nelly Korda’s dominance
No. 4 — Bryson DeChambeau’s star flip
No. 3 — Scheffler’s mind-boggling season
No. 2 — Rory and Bryson’s epic U.S. Open

No. 1: Scottie Scheffler’s arrest

There’s a purpose why we couldn’t imagine our eyes in mid-Could, because the Scottie Scheffler mugshot flickered throughout the web on Friday morning of the PGA Championship. It wasn’t essentially that the World No. 1 was pictured in an orange jumpsuit, nor that his tee time was shortly approaching. It was gorgeous that this particular human might find yourself behind bars. Nobody might imagine that. 

The grounds of Valhalla Golf Membership murmured with that shared disbelief, as a fog delay added to the ominous morning. The mentality within the locker room was simply as ubiquitous: If there have been 156 gamers within the discipline, you’d have chosen 155 different gamers to be on this place forward of Scheffler. He’s unquestionably one of many gentlest individuals in all of professional golf. 

So how did he get in that predicament? It’s attainable you don’t even bear in mind — a morning outlined by elevated police presence as a result of unintended loss of life of a event employee, creating what Scheffler referred to as a “chaotic state of affairs” — as a result of within the weeks that adopted, all expenses have been dropped. 

The interior investigation from the Louisville Metro Police Division reviewed restricted however vital video and audio of Scheffler’s actions that morning, and the way he was whisked away from the gates of the championship. Scheffler was helped immensely by the cellular phone video taken by ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington, who had risen earlier than daybreak for a morning TV hit, solely to search out himself on the middle of the motion.

In some unspecified time in the future that weekend — possible between his second and third rounds — the gravity of what occurred lastly hit Scheffler. Regardless of what number of jackets or medals or trophies he gained, his mugshot was going to be the preferred picture of the yr.

Right here on the finish of 2024 — a yr that featured 9 wins from Scheffler, one of many all-time nice seasons in professional golf historical past — the considered Scheffler’s arrest carries on partly in jest. Many spectators have arrived at his occasions with that mugshot printed on their chest. However as that particular second was ceaselessly hardened into the annals of golf historical past, it’s price remembering what occurred after.

Maybe unsurprisingly, Scheffler shot a five-under 66 throughout the second spherical. However within the moments afterward, Scheffler spoke together with his agent and his lawyer after which delivered a world-class press convention. He apologized for not with the ability to communicate in particular element and was considerate sufficient to say the household of the PGA volunteer who had been struck and killed that morning by a shuttle bus. He was affable, grateful and forgiving. It had been a whirl of a day, however he was in a position to sit behind a microphone with out malice and label all of it a “huge misunderstanding.” 

Twelve days later — after proof had confirmed the police division couldn’t prosecute the costs — Scheffler spoke eloquently concerning the ordeal once more. He referred to as it a “pretty traumatic” story he doesn’t love reliving. He elected to not pursue authorized motion, believing the tax {dollars} concerned in such a case would price Louisville residents for “the errors of their police division.”

“That simply doesn’t appear proper,” Scheffler mentioned, a lesson to us all about vindictiveness.

In the long run, that’s what Scheffler’s arrest grew to become — a collection of classes for these of us who observe the game the closest.

It was a mini marketing campaign of resiliency, consciousness and humility. It was an train in not instantly believing all {that a} picture represents. In trusting there may be all the time context lacking behind a screenshot. It was an train within the function of enforcement, but in addition the significance of surveillance. That day — and the investigation that adopted — might have performed out a lot in another way had Darlington not woken up so early for ESPN. And it might have performed out a lot in another way had Scottie Scheffler not been Scottie Scheffler.