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US PGA Championship 2024: Scottie Scheffler tees off in second round after arrest – live | US PGA

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Key events

Tom Kim bounces back with a 15-footer on 15. He’s back to -6. Meanwhile over on 16, Min Woo Lee finds himself out of position high on a bank to the left of the green, but swishes confidently at his chip and sends the ball floating down the hill, scampering across the green and into the cup. Birdie out of nowhere! His third of the day, and after yesterday’s 72, Minjee’s brother is now -2 overall.

Shane Lowry has two top-ten finishes at the PGA, in 2019 and 2021. The 2019 Open champion is positioned nicely for a tilt at a third, or something even better: he’s just carded his third birdie of the day, at 16, to move to -4 overall.

Mark Hubbard is making his first impression at a major championship. Before this week, his best finish at one was a tie for 51st at the 2020 PGA; the 34-year-old from Denver’s next best effort is 75th in last year’s event. This week could be his breakthrough, though: a late-in-the-day 65 posted yesterday, and now an opening birdie at 10 to move into second spot all on his own!

-9: Schauffele
-7: Hubbard (1*)
-6: Detry (5), Morikawa (4*), Finau, Theegala
-5: English (8*), T Kim (5*), MacIntyre, McIlroy, McNealy

Tom Kim can’t find the green at the monster par-three 14th. It’s only playing at 246 yards today, to be fair, a whopping ten yards shorter than yesterday. Still. It costs him the shot he picked up with that rake at the previous par-three. Back to -5. “If Scheffler somehow ends up winning this tournament, should the US PGA introduce an Orange Jacket for the winner?” wonders Adam Hirst, because let’s face it, someone was going to say it at some point.

Doug Sanders at the 1966 Open. Been there, done that. Photograph: R&A Championships/R&A/Getty Images

Scottie Scheffler missed a miserable par putt from close range on 11. He responds by draining a one-in-ten 40-footer on 12 to move back to -5. A gentle punch of the air. Nothing fazes him. He was in the jug a couple of hours ago!

Thomas Detry shot 66 yesterday. He rattles in a birdie putt on 4 to move to -6. Collin Morikawa does likewise on 13. Meanwhile an opening birdie at 10 for Patrick Reed, the 2018 Masters champ climbing to -3.

-9: Schauffele
-6: Morikawa (4*), Detry (4), T Kim (4*), Finau, Theegala, Hubbard
-5: MacIntyre, McIlroy, McNealy

The 2015 champion Jason Day prepares to wedge into 15. As he addresses the ball, an errant tee shot from the 16th misses him by … well, not a great distance at all. It flies towards him before whistling past his left lug. He calmly turns to see the ball come to a halt 30 yards behind him, then gathers himself and sends his approach to six feet. In goes the par. He’s -2 and lucky to still be upright. An apology no doubt coming from either Cameron Davis, Harris English or Talor Gooch, the three players in the group ahead.

Scottie Scheffler races his first putt at 11 six feet past the flag. He can’t make the one coming back, shoving his putt well wide right of the cup. That never looked like dropping. He moves back to -4. Tom Kim’s 30-foot birdie putt on 13 does look like dropping, however … but it suddenly rears up and stops on the lip, half a dimple short of toppling into the hole. He pulls his gilet over his mouth in irritation, and remains at -6.

Hole-in-one: Sebastian Söderberg

Sebastian Söderberg at the 190-yard par-three 8th. A gentle swing. Straight at the flag. One hop. A little skip. And then the ball disappears into the cup! The 33-year-old Swede, making his PGA Championship debut, moves back to level par with one swish of the club. That’s the first hole-in-one at the PGA since … well, the fourth round last year, when Michael Block slam-dunked in the presence of Rory McIlroy.

Scheffler wasn’t totally on top of his game yesterday. (It’s testament to his outrageous ability that you can say something like that after a major-championship opening round of 67, but here we are.) That opening birdie will give him succour, but his tee shot into the long-ish par-three 11th isn’t the best, only just finding the fringe on the right of the green. He’ll have a bit of work to do to get down in two putts for his par.

Brian Harman is out of position all the way down 10. A short drive, a second shot shoved into bother down the left, a third sent 40 feet from the flag. No matter, he drains the birdie in the Hoylake style. Having shot 72 yesterday, he’s back to level par. Then Scheffler tidies up for his birdie to move to -5. Plenty of Scottie chanting, ringing its way around the course. Close your eyes and it could be Sunday afternoon. What a way to start his round after the morning he’s had. Scheffler and Harman smile at each other and jabber away happily. Looks like it’ll do Scheffler some good to be going around with a pal.

Scheffler does indeed lay up with his second, trusting his wedge. Great idea. He lands his approach just to the right of the stick, the ball spinning back to a couple of feet below the hole. If that. He’ll have a great look at birdie. Not as quite as blistering a start as the hole-out for eagle he made on 1 yesterday, but that’ll go some way to settling the nerves, which must surely be jangling like billy-o.

Min Woo Lee has started quickly as well. Birdie at 10 followed by a chip-in from the back of 12, and the young Aussie moves up to -1 in short order. Meanwhile Shane Lowry has got himself back up to -3 with birdie at 13.

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The ever-entertaining Tom Kim shot 66 yesterday. The early signs are that he’s in decent nick today. He really should have birdied 10, but missed a five-footer; however that’s not fazed him, and he’s just sunk a 30-footer on 11 to make the first move at the top of the leaderboard.

-9: Schauffele
-6: T Kim (2*), Finau, Theegala, Hubbard
-5: Morikawa (1*), Detry (1), McIlroy, MacIntyre, McNealy

Scheffler tees off

Scottie Scheffler, half obscured under his huge umbrella – it’s tipping down in Louisville – marches up to the 10th tee, where he’ll start his second round. A huge ovation from the gallery. Wyndham Clark and Brian Harman clack their tee shots down the track. Then … and we wondered whether he’d be here a couple of hours ago … up steps Scheffler. Another big blast of support from the fans. Then the Masters champion skelps a big drive into the first cut down the right. He’ll most likely lay up rather than going for the par-five in two.

The Open champion Brian Harman will be going around with Scheffler this morning, and he speaks to ESPN. “It’s just a wild morning, man … Scottie is one hell of a dude and I sure am glad he’s going to be out here to play … by the time I got in, everything was cleared up, but it was so congested … just a bad scene … Scottie is a joy to be around and I look forward to playing with him again today … [the players in the locker room] were just supportive … hoping everything would get figured out in time for him to have a chance … we’ve all got a job to do … I’m happy to see him walking around over there.”

The PGA have also released a statement. This one as heart-wrenching as you’d expect.

“This morning we were devastated to learn that a worker with one of our vendors was tragically struck and killed by a shuttle bus outside Valhalla Golf Club. This is heartbreaking to all of us involved with the PGA Championship. We extend our sincere condolences to their family…

— PGA Championship (@PGAChampionship) May 17, 2024

Scottie Scheffler has issued a statement. It’s as thoughtful and respectful as you’d expect from the man.

A couple of early birdies to report. Shane Lowry, who shot 69 yesterday, follows opens with birdie at 10 to move to -3 … but only momentarily, as he three-putts from distance on the par-three 11th to slip back to where he started at -2. In the group ahead, Harris English birdied 10 and the 34-year-old Georgian, who has a weirdly lopsided record in the majors – absolutely nothing of note to report in a dozen years of trying, with the notable exception of third, fourth and eighth-placed finishes at the US Open in the last four years – joins the group at -4.

Scottie Scheffler turns up on the range. The orange jail shirt now swapped for a pristine white Nike sweater. Some wag in the gallery shouts that his mugshot “was way better than Tiger’s”; suffice to say Scheffler doesn’t crack a smile at the bon mot. The face still ashen. He’s trying his best to regain some sort of focus, looking straight ahead. A fistbump from Rickie Fowler. “All good?” “All good,” he replies. “You’re not a criminal,” another gallery member shouts, amid a smattering of supportive “Scottie”s. A few short irons to loosen up. Then finally a semblance of a smile as he gets back down to work.

The Louisville Metro Police Department have released a statement regarding the fatal accident. “About 5:00 this morning, the LMPD responded to a call of a vehicle collision involving a pedestrian and a bus,” it begins.

“Our 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.

“As a result, the pedestrian received fatal injuries and was pronounced dead on the scene. The LMPD Traffic Unit is investigating.”

Sky: Scheffler to tee off at 10.08am. Kira K Dixon of Sky reports that Scheffler told gathered journalists that “he wasn’t going to be commenting” but “popped his head into player dining and said ‘hello I’m here’ and continued on”.

Dixon adds that “it seems to be all signs pointing to him having a warm-up, that he will play, and he should be at that 10.08 tee-time … spirits are fine … he is ready to go … he’ll try to get into the headspace that is required to compete at a major.”

Scheffler arrives at Valhalla

Scottie Scheffler is back on the property. A big black Ford SUV draws up to the front door of the clubhouse, through which the world number one quietly and quickly disappears. He’s ashen-faced, as you’d imagine. The dank, drizzly morning sky matching his mood.

Scottie Scheffler arrives for the second round. Photograph: Jeff Roberson/AP
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As evidenced by Rich Beem’s early double bogey, the second round has belatedly started. Nothing of great import going on in the early matches, so time for some admin. “This is low down the list of things to point out,” begins our chief sports reporter Sean Ingle, “but Scottie is out to 13-1 on Betfair. He was less than half that a couple of hours ago.” Meanwhile here’s the weather report; expect more delays, for less tragic reasons, later in the day.

Scheffler released and returning to Valhalla

Scottie Scheffler has indeed been released and is expected to arrive at Valhalla any minute now. He’s 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 he’s currently expected to still play. The PGA are able to move a tee time in “exceptional circumstances”; 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. “The energy is zapped,” he reports. His Sky colleague Rich Beem is competing this week as a former champion, and Beem told Riley that “no-one had seen Scottie Scheffler … everyone was on their phone … they’d hit a shot, hit a putt, then look on their phone … they were caring for Scottie Scheffler, they were worried.”

Riley also spoke of the “person who was coming to the golf, if he was coming, lost his life … that is a terrible thing … you’re 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, ‘I can’t believe they’re actually playing today’ … I’m getting that vibe … I’m getting a lot of vibe that people are going ‘woah, somebody’s lost their life here today, Scottie has been taken away, do we go into Monday?’ ”

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 didn’t 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 Scheffler’s criminal charges:

  • Second degree assault of a police officer

  • Third degree criminal mischief

  • Reckless driving

  • Disregarding traffic signals from an officer directing traffic

There are also unconfirmed reports that he’s 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: “Scheffler 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, ‘Please help me.’

“He very clearly did not know what was happening in the situation. It moved very quickly, very rapidly, very aggressively.”

This is surreal and absurd. Kentucky traffic cops, they ain’t too smart.

Scottie Scheffler detention card Photograph: Louisville Metropolitan Department of Corrections

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.

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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

“Here’s the thing. Right now, right now, he’s going to jail, OK, and there ain’t nothing you can do about it. Period. There’s nothing you can do about it.” That’s what a Kentucky cop told ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington in that filmed exchange, after Scheffler appeared to turn to Darlington and ask: “Can you please help me?” 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: “Traffic 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.

“Scheffler attempted to continue to go, the police officer then attached himself to the side of Scheffler’s car.

“Scheffler 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.

“He 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.”

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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 accident” “About 5am this morning, the LMPD responded to a call of a vehicle collision involving a pedestrian and a bus.

“Our 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.

“As a result, the pedestrian received fatal injuries and was pronounced dead on the scene. The LMPD Traffic Unit is investigating.”

Preamble

and we’re back. Eleven hours and 31 minutes ago, the first day of the 106th edition of the PGA Championship came to a close. Now we’re back up and running again! Friday promises to be another Homeric odyssey, possibly incorporating weather breaks, but whatever happens we’ll be blogging about it ♫♪ all day looooooonng♫♪. Today’s second-round tee times are below, but first here’s how the very top of a star-studded leaderboard looked at the end of play last night …

-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)

It’s on!



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