Key events
Scheffler released and returning to Valhalla
Scottie Scheffler has indeed been released and is expected to arrive at Valhalla any minute now. Heâs being given a police escort back to the golf club. A reminder that his tee time is at 10.08am local time, just over one hour away. His caddie is in attendance, so heâs currently expected to still play. The PGA are able to move a tee time in âexceptional circumstancesâ; whether sending him out later is on the table or not is yet to be ascertained.
Sky Sports commentator Wayne Riley has been on the driving range to gauge opinion among the early starters. âThe energy is zapped,â he reports. His Sky colleague Rich Beem is competing this week as a former champion, and Beem told Riley that âno-one had seen Scottie Scheffler ⦠everyone was on their phone ⦠theyâd hit a shot, hit a putt, then look on their phone ⦠they were caring for Scottie Scheffler, they were worried.â
Riley also spoke of the âperson who was coming to the golf, if he was coming, lost his life ⦠that is a terrible thing ⦠youâre looking forward to the PGA Championship here at Valhalla and someone is not going to be with us today ⦠so many players have said to me, âI canât believe theyâre actually playing todayâ ⦠Iâm getting that vibe ⦠Iâm getting a lot of vibe that people are going âwoah, somebodyâs lost their life here today, Scottie has been taken away, do we go into Monday?â â
Play is however continuing as planned, albeit with that 80-minute delay. By way of illustrating the difficulty of snapping back into competitive mode, the aforementioned Beem, first out today, opened with a double bogey.
Louisville Metro police have given a little more detail on the fatal traffic accident in the early hours of this morning. Their spokesman Dwight Mitchell told Louisville radio station WHAS that the man was crossing Shelbyville Road, which runs past Valhalla Golf Club, at about 5 am. The shuttle bus didnât see him. Mitchell confirmed that the man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Scheffler’s charge sheet
According to ESPN, this is the list of Schefflerâs criminal charges:
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Second degree assault of a police officer
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Third degree criminal mischief
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Reckless driving
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Disregarding traffic signals from an officer directing traffic
There are also unconfirmed reports that heâs been released and is on his way to Valhalla.
Scheffler’s detention card
ESPN have reported that Scheffler drove past a police officer in his SUV with markings on the door indicating it was a PGA Championship vehicle. The officer screamed at him to stop and then attached himself to the car until Scheffler pulled up 10 yards later.
ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington added: âScheffler was then walked over to the police car, placed in the back, in handcuffs, very stunned about what was happening, looked toward me as he was in those handcuffs and said, âPlease help me.â
âHe very clearly did not know what was happening in the situation. It moved very quickly, very rapidly, very aggressively.â
This is surreal and absurd. Kentucky traffic cops, they ainât too smart.
According to reports, Scheffler thought he was attempting to get past Valhalla GC security, and not the police. And now look, courtesy of the sports director of an ABC affiliate in Tulsa.
⦠and a close-up of the mugshot thanks to Golf Digest magazine. Booked at 7.28am for the record.
The PGA have confirmed that all tee times have been pushed back one hour and 20 minutes from the original sheet. The 2002 champion Rich Beem will now hit the first shot of the day at 1.35pm BST.
UPDATE
Play of Round 2 will begin at 8:35 AM. All Round 2 Starting Times are delayed 1 hour and 20 minutes from the originally published time.
All spectator gates will open at 8:00 AM.#PGAChamp
— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 17, 2024
âHereâs the thing. Right now, right now, heâs going to jail, OK, and there ainât nothing you can do about it. Period. Thereâs nothing you can do about it.â Thatâs what a Kentucky cop told ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington in that filmed exchange, after Scheffler appeared to turn to Darlington and ask: âCan you please help me?â Fair to say, Scheffler will be lucky to make his tee time, initially scheduled for 8.48am (1.48pm BST) but since pushed back by the accident to 10.08am.
Scottie Scheffler detained by police
Tragedy has turned to farce, with Scottie Scheffler detained by police for reportedly attempting to get around a traffic jam caused by the aforementioned fatal accident outside Valhalla.
Scheffler was attempting to get to the course to prepare for his round when he was detained. ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington, who witnessed the incident, said on air: âTraffic had been backed up and building, Scottie Scheffler tried to enter Valhalla Golf Club using a side median, at which point a police officer instructed him to stop.
âScheffler attempted to continue to go, the police officer then attached himself to the side of Schefflerâs car.
âScheffler stopped the vehicle as he turned into Valhalla Golf Club at the entrance, about 10 to 20 yards from the point at which the police officer first told him to stop. At that point the police officer instructed Scheffler to get out of the car.
âHe rolled down the window, the police officer grabbed his arm and started pulling at it. He reached inside, opened the car door, pulled Scheffler out, pushed him up against the car, immediately placed him in handcuffs.â
Play delayed by fatal accident
A tragic start to the day at Valhalla. The start of the second round has been delayed following an accident in which a pedestrian died after being struck by a shuttle bus, according to Louisville Metro Police Department.
LMPD has released a statement on the accidentâ âAbout 5am this morning, the LMPD responded to a call of a vehicle collision involving a pedestrian and a bus.
âOur preliminary investigation found that an adult male pedestrian was crossing Shelbyville Road south to north when he was struck by a shuttle bus that was travelling eastbound in the compulsory centre lane dedicated for buses.
âAs a result, the pedestrian received fatal injuries and was pronounced dead on the scene. The LMPD Traffic Unit is investigating.â
Preamble
⦠and weâre back. Eleven hours and 31 minutes ago, the first day of the 106th edition of the PGA Championship came to a close. Now weâre back up and running again! Friday promises to be another Homeric odyssey, possibly incorporating weather breaks, but whatever happens weâll be blogging about it â«âª all day looooooonngâ«âª. Todayâs second-round tee times are below, but first hereâs how the very top of a star-studded leaderboard looked at the end of play last night â¦
-9: Schauffele
-6: Finau, Theegala, Hubbard
-5: McIlroy, MacIntyre, Hoge, T Kim, Detry, Morikawa, McNealy
-4: Kohles, Koepka, Moore, Noren, Eckroat, Scheffler
Tee times (USA unless stated, all times BST)
Starting at 1
1215 Rich Beem, Kazuma Kobori (Jpn), Sebastian Soederberg (Swe)
1226 Josh Bevell, Aaron Rai (Eng), Jordan Smith (Eng)
1237 Charley Hoffman, Jesse Mueller, Andrew Putnam
1248 Tom Hoge, Si-Woo Kim (Kor), Alexander Noren (Swe)
1259 Matthieu Pavon (Fra), J. T. Poston, Yong-Eun Yang (Kor)
1310 Jason Dufner, Jake Knapp, Francesco Molinari (Ita)
1321 Thomas Detry (Bel), Rasmus Hoejgaard (Den), Jimmy Walker
1332 Austin Eckroat, Mackenzie Hughes (Can), Luke List
1343 Christiaan Bezuidenhout (Rsa), Beau Hossler, Sung-Jae Im (Kor)
1354 Keith Mitchell, Thorbjoern Olesen (Den), Brendon Todd
1405 Brice Garnett, John Somers, Jesper Svensson (Swe)
1416 Evan Bowser, Emiliano Grillo (Arg), Alejandro Tosti (Arg)
1427 Chris Gotterup, Vincent Norrman (Swe), Wyatt Worthington II
1745 Tyler Collet, Doug Ghim, Adrian Meronk (Pol)
1756 Larkin Gross, Lucas Herbert (Aus), Grayson Murray
1807 Lucas Glover, Russell Henley, Stephan Jaeger (Ger)
1818 Ludvig Aaberg (Swe), Xander Schauffele, Justin Thomas
1829 Keegan Bradley, Adam Scott (Aus), Tiger Woods
1840 Dustin Johnson, Rory McIlroy (NIrl), Justin Rose (Eng)
1851 Viktor Hovland (Nor), Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn), Cameron Smith (Aus)
1902 Max Homa, Brooks Koepka, Jordan Spieth
1913 Tony Finau, Tyrrell Hatton (Eng), Sahith Theegala
1924 Akshay Bhatia, Bryson DeChambeau, Tommy Fleetwood (Eng)
1935 Takumi Kanaya (Jpn), Sepp Straka (Aut), Nick Taylor (Can)
1946 Dean Burmester (Rsa), Ben Griffin, Andrew Svoboda
1957 Preston Cole, Adrian Otaegui (Spa), Tim Widing (Swe)
Starting at 10
1220 Matt Dobyns, Thriston Lawrence (Rsa), David Puig (Spa)
1231 Denny McCarthy, Keita Nakajima (Jpn), Tracy Phillips
1242 Cameron Davis (Aus), Harris English, Talor Gooch
1253 Jason Day (Aus), Nicolai Hoejgaard (Den), Shane Lowry (Irl)
1304 Billy Horschel, Chris Kirk, Min-Woo Lee (Aus)
1315 Joo-Hyung Kim (Kor), Joaquin Niemann (Chi), Gary Woodland
1326 Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng), Phil Mickelson, Collin Morikawa
1337 Rickie Fowler, Jon Rahm (Spa), Cameron Young
1348 Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, Scottie Scheffler
1359 Patrick Cantlay, Camilo Villegas (Col), Will Zalatoris
1410 Sam Burns, Padraig Harrington (Irl), Patrick Reed
1421 Mark Hubbard, Brad Marek, Maverick McNealy
1432 Seong-Hyeon Kim (Kor), Braden Shattuck, Chengtsung Pan (Tai)
1740 Michael Block, Luke Donald (Eng), Shaun Micheel
1751 Jeffrey Kellen, Ben Kohles, Alex Smalley
1802 Ryan Fox (Nzl), Josh Speight, Matt Wallace (Eng)
1813 Ryo Hisatsune (Jpn), Zac Oakley, Adam Svensson (Can)
1824 Adam Hadwin (Can), Martin Kaymer (Ger), Taylor Pendrith (Can)
1835 Byeong-Hun An (Kor), Alexander Bjoerk (Swe), Eric Cole
1846 Corey Conners (Can), Nick Dunlap, Adam Schenk
1857 John Daly, Lee Hodges, Robert MacIntyre (Sco)
1908 Kurt Kitayama, Peter Malnati, Victor Perez (Fra)
1919 Zachary Blair, Ben Polland, Ryan van Velzen (Rsa)
1930 Kyoung-Hoon Lee (Kor), Sami Valimaki (Fin), Jeremy Wells
1941 Jared Jones, Taylor Moore, Patrick Rodgers
1952 Kyle Mendoza, Andy Ogletree, Erik van Rooyen (Rsa)
Itâs on!
