Scottie Scheffler will be in Dublin, Ohio, this week for the Memorial Tournament with at least one thing removed from his “to do” list.
He no longer must answer to criminal charges from one of the most bizarre chapters in professional golf.
Officials in Louisville, Kentucky, dropped the four counts against Scheffler, going so far as to say that he was right all along.
“Mr. Scheffler’s characterization that this was ‘a big misunderstanding’ is corroborated by the evidence,” Mike O’Connell, the district attorney in Jefferson County, Kentucky, said in declining to proceed with the case.
Scheffler, the world’s No. 1-ranked golfer, was arrested and led away in handcuffs before sunrise on May 17 ahead of the second round of the PGA Championship after he approached the scene of a fatal accident on U.S. 60, known locally as Shelbyville Road, near the entrance to Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville. He was booked on four charges – second degree felony assault on a law-enforcement officer and three misdemeanor offenses – photographed in orange jail attire, fingerprinted and then released as his mug shot swept the internet. He arrived in time for play after tee times were delayed 80 minutes because of congestion related to the accident, in which a tournament volunteer was struck and killed by a bus.
The incident prompted Louisville police to discipline the arresting officer, Detective Bryan Gillis, and launch an internal investigation while wrestling with allegations that Scheffler received special treatment in a booking procedure that was far faster and more efficient than what the Louisville Courier Journal reported is the norm.
But that’s a situation for Louisville officials to address and no longer has anything to do with the world No. 1 as he sets his sights on the Memorial and then next week’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst. READ MORE
COURTESY LMPD
The body of Grayson Murray, a 30-year-old two-time PGA Tour winner who died by suicide after withdrawing from the tournament in Fort Worth, Texas, was found by local police at his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, according to a report by Tom D’Angelo in the Palm Beach Post. Murray’s body was found at about 11 a.m. EDT on May 25. The incident remained under investigation, but the initial inquiry revealed “no signs of foul play,” police said. READ MORE
Final qualifying will be held at nine sites across the U.S. and one in Canada today as the field for next week’s 124th U.S. Open at Pinehurst (North Carolina) Resort’s No. 2 course takes shape. Tee times and results can be found HERE. For a list of exempt players to the Open, click HERE.
Stanford’s Michael Thorbjornsen earned an exemption on the PGA Tour through 2025 by finishing first on the PGA Tour University Ranking. Thorbjornsen, 22, of Wellesley, Massachusetts, missed the fall season with a stress fracture in his back. After a slow start to the spring season, he won the Cabo Collegiate and added two runners-up among five top-10s. Thorbjornsen has made three cuts in eight starts on the PGA Tour, highlighted by a fourth-place finish at the 2022 Travelers Championship. Nos. 2-25 on the PGA Tour University Ranking earned various levels of status on the PGA Tour’s developmental circuits. READ MORE
Ángel Cabrera, a two-time major champion who served 30 months in prison in his native Argentina and Brazil on domestic-violence convictions, has secured a travel visa to the U.S. and intends to resume his career on the Champions Tour, Golfweek’s Adam Schupak reported. As the 2009 Masters champion, Cabrera holds a lifetime exemption to the season’s first major championship, in which he has not competed since 2019. READ MORE
Final-round coverage of the PGA Tour’s Charles Schwab Challenge on May 26 on CBS was up slightly from the event’s 2023 viewership, according to Sports Media Watch. The tournament, in which Davis Riley pulled away from major champions Scottie Scheffler and Keegan Bradley, attracted an average of 2.08 million viewers, up about 12 percent from the previous year’s final round. READ MORE
John Wood, an on-course reporter for NBC and a former PGA Tour caddie, was named to the newly created position of manager for the U.S. Ryder Cup team, the PGA of America announced. READ MORE
Compiled by Steve Harmon