Louisville [US], May 18 (ANI): It was one of the strangest days in world golf. The World No 1, Scottie Scheffler, was in handcuffs and police had a mug shot taken before being released in time to make his second-round tee time. Scheffler, admittedly shaken, shrugged off that nervousness, birdied and the first hole he played and carded 5-under 66 and stayed in contention at Tied-fourth with two rounds to go.
Xander Schauffele, fresh off his record start of 62, had to settle for seven pars in his last seven holes for a 68. At 12-under 130, he was one shot ahead of Collin Morikawa (66-65) at 11-under and two ahead of Indian-American Sahith Theegala (65-67) at 10-under. Morikawa may have had a tie for the lead as he birdied five in a row down the stretch but ended with a bogey for a 65.
Scheffler (67-66) was tied fourth alongside Belgian Thomas Detry (66-67), Mark Hubbard (65-68) and Bryson DeChambeau (68-65) at nine-under.
Rory McIlroy had a double bogey in his even-par 71 and was T-22 at 5-under, while Tiger Woods had two triple bogeys and missed the cut.
Briton Aaron Rai, whose mother has an Indo-Kenyan connection, shot (68-68) and was T-16, while Akshay Bhatia (73-70) missed the cut.
The top Asian was Hideki Matsuyama (70-65) at T-11 and Tom Kim (66-71) was T-22 and Byeong Hun-An (71-67) was T-29.
There was a lot more action off the golf course than when it began on the course 80 minutes later than scheduled due to a traffic snarl that followed an accident that led to the death of a pedestrian outside Valhalla.
It even had Scheffler being handcuffed and led to a police station. “I feel like my head is still spinning,” Scheffler said.
Scheffler was driving to Valhalla Golf Club about 6 am when he ran into traffic, unaware police were investigating a pedestrian — John Mills, who worked for a vendor at the tournament — being struck and killed by a shuttle bus near the entrance.
Scheffler did not understand when he was asked to stop. He was arrested for failing to follow police instructions and the report indicated a Louisville Metro police officer was dragged to the ground as Scheffler’s car drove by, causing swelling and abrasions on the officer’s left wrist.
Scheffler said it was a “chaotic situation” and he never intended to disregard the police instructions. “A big misunderstanding,” he said.
“I can’t imagine what they’re going through. I feel for them,” he said of the victim’s family. “My situation will get handled.”
Scheffler was handcuffed and taken into custody. He posed for a mug shot wearing an orange jail dress.
Yet he said, “I did spend some time stretching in a jail cell. That was a first for me,” Scheffler said. “I was just sitting there waiting and I started going through my warmup. I felt like there was a chance I may be able to still come out here and play. I started going through my routine and I tried to get my heart rate down as much as I could today.
“I was fortunate to be able to make it back out and play some golf today.” On the very first hole, he hit a wedge to 3 feet for birdie on his first hole. He was solid from tee-to-green, made a few putts and had a round that ranked among his best under the circumstances.
“As far as best rounds of my career, I would say it was pretty good,” Scheffler said. “I definitely never imagined ever going to jail, and I definitely never imagined going to jail the morning before one of my tee times for sure.”
“I’ve kept myself in the tournament now with a pretty chaotic day, so I’m going to go from here and focus on getting some rest and recovery and get ready for a grind the last two days,” Scheffler said.
There was a delay of 1 hour, 20 minutes because of the accident. When play was called off in darkness with18 players were yet to finish and the cut looked 1-under par, also a PGA Championship record.
Morikawa, who contended at the Masters, is back. He said, “I know I still have it in me, and that’s what’s exciting. After Augusta, it sucked to finish like that and it sucked to lose to Scottie, but at the end of the day, I knew I had three more majors coming up.”
Scheffler was at 133 with Bryson DeChambeau (65), Thomas Detry (67) and Mark Hubbard, who had three bogeys and three birdies over his last seven holes in a round of 68.
Austin Eckroat, who won his first PGA TOUR title earlier this year at the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches, got out of his car in traffic and walked the rest of the way. His wife took the car and later returned. He fashioned another 67 and was in the group at 8-under 134. (ANI)
