Had it not been for his bizarre Louisville arrest before round two of the PGA Championship at Valhalla, Scottie Scheffler might be teeing it up at the Memorial Tournament in Ohio halfway to the ‘Scottie Slam.’
Scheffler is still the overwhelming favourite to prevail this week and to repeat the feat at next week’s US Open but he admits he is still suffering from the mental effects of his arrest and fears he might not be able to get the image of him in the orange jumpsuit out of his mind.
Fortunately, and rightly, the world number one saw the four charges against him dropped last week.
“I definitely haven’t moved past it,” he said on Tuesday at the Memorial tournament. “I would say that I still haven’t a 100 per cent moved past it. Yeah, the charges are dropped, but it’s now almost more appropriate for people to ask me about it, and to be honest with you, it’s not something I love reliving, just because it was fairly traumatic for me being arrested going into the golf course.
“And so it’s not something that I love talking about… It was definitely a bit of a relief [the charges being dropped], but not total relief because that’s something that will always stick with me. That mugshot − I’m sure it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.”
Scheffler could have sued the Louisville Police Department but opted against doing so.
“For me personally, no,” he said, when asked if he and his lawyers had considered seeking reparation that obviously would have stretched in the million. “That was something that if we needed to use it, I think Steve [Romines, his attorney] was more than ready to use.
“There was a ton of evidence in our favour. There were eyewitnesses on the scene that corroborated my story and the video evidence… All the evidence pointed to exactly what my side of the story was, and so if we needed to … Well, I don’t really know how to describe it, but basically, if I had to show up in court, I think Steve was more than prepared to pursue legal action.
“But at the end of the day, I did not want to have to because the people of Louisville were to have to pay for the mistakes of their police department. And that just doesn’t seem right.”
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