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By now, you’ve probably caught wind of the drama that unfolded in Louisville, Kentucky, involving none other than the world’s greatest golfer, Scottie Scheffler. He was in town for the PGA championship. What transpired was straight out of a Keystone Cops sketch, leaving both the city of Louisville and the local police with a massive black eye and a potential lawsuit on their hands. And of course, the initial story got it all wrong and turned poor Scheffler into a potential felon and a guy who is out there attacking cops and dragging them around with his car. They even put him in an orange jumpsuit.

 

Here’s how the story initially unfolded.

Golf.com:

The confrontation — which by now you’ve undoubtedly read, heard and/or meme’d about — involved the world’s top-ranked male golfer, Scottie Scheffler, and a detective with the Louisville Metro Police Department named Bryan Gillis. In short: After Scheffler pulled into the westbound lane, Gillis, who was directing traffic, stopped Scheffler and gave him instructions. But, according to Gillis, Scheffler “refused to comply and accelerated forward, dragging (him) to the ground.” In a statement Friday, Scheffler said that he had been “proceeding as directed” and that the incident resulted from a “big misunderstanding of what I thought I was being asked to do.” Scheffler was arrested and taken to the Louisville Metro Department of Corrections, where he was charged with three driving-related misdemeanors and second-degree assault of a police offer, which is a felony.

How convenient that the body camera on the cop who arrested Scottie Scheffler was never activated. However, regardless, the plot thickened and changed significantly thanks to the ESPN crew in a nearby car, who had a front-row seat to the entire debacle. And, as you might imagine, their account of the events differs sharply from that of the Keystone cops. The Golf.com piece goes on:

The bombshell arrest news was broken by Darlington, who had witnessed much of what had transpired. At 6:35 a.m., Darlington tweeted: “World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler has been detained by police in handcuffs after a misunderstanding with traffic flow led to his attempt to drive past a police officer into Valhalla Golf Club. The police officer attempted to attach himself to Scheffler’s car, and Scheffler then stopped his vehicle at the entrance to Valhalla. The police officer then began to scream at Scheffler to get out of the car. When Scheffler exited the vehicle, the officer shoved Scheffler against the car and immediately placed him in handcuffs. He is now being detained in the back of a police car.”

Here’s how Wischusen recalls that moment: “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. I mean, there was kind of an outcropping or median, you know, by the front gate. And keep in mind, it was raining. It was 6 o’clock in the morning. It was dark.”

Asked about Darlington’s characterization of the officer “attaching” himself to the car, 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.”

Wischusen said Scheffler was moving at a relatively slow speed — “the speed that you would drive a car if you were pulling up to the front gate of a place,” he said — and before pulling over had driven approximately the 10 or so yards that Darlington had estimated.

When Scheffler stopped the car, Wischusen said Gillis was visibly upset. “He runs up to the driver’s side, and with the butt end of his flashlight starts screaming, you know, ‘Get out of the car, get out of the car’ — banging on the window — ‘shut the engine off, get out of the car. I’m a police officer.’”

The driver “peacefully” exited the car, Wischusen said, at which point the officer “put him up against the car and put him in handcuffs.” Said Wischusen: “That was when we realized — you know, all the way up until then we’re like, oh my God, whoever is in this car, there’s about to be an arrest of some sort. And then it was, ‘Oh my God, it’s Scottie Scheffler.”

Recognizing the gravity and magnitude of the moment, Darlington immediately switched into reporter mode and exited the SUV to document what was happening. Wischusen, Ogilvy, Fleming and their driver hung back in the vehicle. “I’m not an investigative reporter, right?” Wischusen said. “I thought the exact right thing to do is just stay in the car, let Jeff go out and ask questions and let the situation play out, and certainly not insert ourselves or all of a sudden try to, you know, to have any role to play.”

So, it seems what really went down is this: the traffic cop, playing “tough guy,” took things way too far and essentially attacked an innocent person, who just so happened to be the star of the major sporting event his city was hosting. Honestly, this cop should be retrained or fired. Clearly, he’s not cut out for a high-stress job.

Julie Kelly:

So the traffic cop/crash expert went nuts and lowkey assaulted Scheffler; LPD lied about the circumstances in a report for PR purposes; LPD then admits cop didn’t have BWC activated and drops charges.

Whole incident and media coverage probably cost Scheffler the tournament. Hope he sues.

This poor guy just wanted to play golf, but instead, thanks to some unprofessional, inept cop, he was this close to making license plates for the next ten years.

Valhalla should never again have the honor of hosting a major—period, end of story. The way this situation was handled makes it crystal clear: Louisville just isn’t cut out for this caliber of major event. They should hang their heads in shame.

Meanwhile, the memes are scoring a hole in one.

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