Scottie Scheffler hits his tee shot on Saturday on the first gap at Royal Montreal.
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MONTREAL — Scottie Scheffler’s father was concerned in an altercation with a vulgar fan on Saturday on the Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal Golf Membership earlier than Scheffler’s caddie — and, shortly thereafter, the police — helped separate the 2.
The incident started earlier than Scheffler hit his method shot on the sixteenth gap throughout Saturday afternoon’s alternate-shot match. As Scheffler and his companion Russell Henley walked in direction of their drives alongside their opponents, Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im, a fan to the suitable of the golf green, close to hospitality tents, could possibly be heard by a GOLF reporter yelling vulgar remarks at Scheffler and his spouse, Meredith, who was additionally with the group, as was Scheffler’s dad, Scott.
At that time, the elder Scheffler peeled off and stepped throughout a fan rope to confront the person earlier than intervening officers have been assigned to the golfers and Scheffler’s caddie, Ted Scott, who was nonetheless carrying Scheffler’s bag. The Athletic’s Gabby Herzig reported on social media that Scott Scheffler stated the person was escorted from the course. An officer would solely affirm to a GOLF.com reporter that an incident had occurred.
Shortly after the altercation, Scheffler hit his method shot, and minutes later he closed out the match with a 2-foot, 8-inch putt for par. His dad and mom declined to speak to a GOLF reporter particularly in regards to the incident, and Scheffler was not a part of the post-round press convention.
Henley, nevertheless, was, and he was requested whether or not he or Scheffler have been distracted by what had occurred.
“No, probably not,” he stated. “As soon as it occurred, we simply sort of refocused and bought again in it.”
The incident was a part of a rollercoaster match that solely grew extra heated because the day progressed. Scheffler and Henley fell 3 down on the entrance 9 and trailed for the primary 11 holes of their match earlier than taking a 1-up lead on the 14th gap. On 15, Im hit his group’s tee shot into the water left of the golf green, and Scheffler gave the impression to be debating with Im and Matsuyama about the place the ball could be dropped forward of their third shot. After the dialogue was settled, Scheffler picked up the membership of one of many Worldwide gamers and shoved it again into that participant’s bag.
When requested afterward whether or not there was a difficulty with the drop, Henley stated he didn’t know. On the time, he was making ready to hit his group’s second shot, after Scheffler’s tee shot.
“I wasn’t over there,” Henley stated. “I feel Scottie was sort of dealing with it, but it surely regarded like they got here to an settlement. So I’m undecided.”
After the match completed on the sixteenth inexperienced, Scheffler enthusiastically embraced his American teammates, rapidly shook fingers with Im and Matsuyama after which continued to rejoice.
The victory helped give his American facet an 11-7 benefit over the Worldwide crew, which is made up of gamers outdoors of the U.S. and Europe. Play within the biennial occasion finishes Sunday, when the 12 members of the American crew play the 12 Worldwide professionals in singles matches.
Within the third match of the day, at 12:26 p.m. ET, Scheffler performs Matsuyama. It stands to be certainly one of his closing skilled rounds of golf of 2024, probably the most outstanding season of his professional profession. Scheffler has received eight occasions worldwide this yr, together with the Masters and Olympic gold, placing collectively one of the dominant seasons in latest PGA Tour historical past. Scheffler additionally made nationwide information when he bought arrested forward of the PGA Championship’s second spherical for a site visitors incident earlier than he was launched from jail simply earlier than his tee time. These fees have been in the end dropped.
