OFFICER WHO ARRESTED SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER DISCIPLINED FOR NOT HAVING BODY CAM ACTIVATED

Louisville Metropolitan Police Department via AP

 LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The Kentucky police officer who arrested top-ranked golfer Scottie Scheffler outside the PGA Championship is receiving “corrective action” for not having his body-worn camera activated when he approached the golfer's vehicle — an interaction that allegedly resulted in the officer being dragged to the ground, authorities said Thursday.

Louisville officials said during a news conference that they are not aware of any video footage of the initial interaction last Friday between Scheffler and Louisville Detective Bryan Gillis outside the gates of Valhalla Golf Club on a dark and rainy morning. But Gillis wrote in a report on his failure to turn on the camera that Scheffler “demanded to be let in and proceeded forward ... I was dragged/knocked down by the driver."

Police did release video Thursday from a street pole camera that appears to show Scheffler's SUV turning into the golf club entrance, prompting an officer to run toward the vehicle and seemingly strike it as it comes to a stop. The camera is too far away to capture the full details of the encounter.

Another video released by authorities comes from a police vehicle dashcam and shows Scheffler in handcuffs as he is escorted by officers.

The local prosecutor handling the case has requested that any additional video or evidence related to the case not be released “until the conclusion of the legal process,” the mayor said.

Scheffler was arrested on charges that he injured Gillis and disobeyed commands, but the golfer said “he never intended to disregard any of the instructions,” and that the incident was caused by a misunderstanding.

After the news conference, Scheffler's attorney Steve Romines said his client was not at fault.

“Our position is the same as it was last Friday, Scottie Scheffler didn’t do anything wrong, we’re not interested in settling the case," Romines said. "We’ll either try it or it will be dismissed.”

The city's police chief noted that the department's officers are expected to maintain their body-worn cameras in a “constant state of operational readiness.”

“Detective Gillis should have turned on his body-worn camera but did not," Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said. "His failure to do so is a violation of LMPD policy on uniforms and equipment.”

The report on the internal investigation said Gillis should have at least had his camera on in standby mode while directing traffic before the incident with Scheffler.

Gwinn-Villaroel said Gillis "received corrective action" for the violation. The document released Thursday said Gillis completed a "failure to record" form as required by policy, was “counseled by a member of his command” and that a “performance observation” was completed.

Gillis wrote in the document that he was requested to respond to a fatal accident at Valhalla when he saw Scheffler's vehicle "traveling in the opposing lanes coming at me."

Scheffler was driving before dawn to Valhalla Golf Club to play in the second round of the tournament when he encountered Gillis.

Gillis, who approached Scheffler’s car on foot, wrote in an arrest report that Scheffler “refused to comply and accelerated forward, dragging” Gillis to the ground. Gillis said his uniform pants were damaged in the fall and he was taken to the hospital for his injuries.

A few hours later, after a trip to jail, Scheffler returned to the golf course in time for his 10:08 a.m. tee time. He finished the tournament Sunday tied for eighth place, enough for a tournament payout of about $520,000.

He is scheduled to return to Louisville on June 3 to be arraigned on four charges, including second-degree felony assault of a police officer.

Louisville police’s current body camera policy was enacted amid controversy in 2020 after officers shot Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman who was killed during a botched drug raid. At the time, the plain-clothes officers who served the warrant and fired at Taylor were not required to wear body cameras.

The new policy required all officers to turn on the camera “prior to engaging in all law enforcement activities and encounters.”

The police chief at the time of Taylor’s death was later fired when officers at the scene of another fatal shooting failed to turn on their body-worn cameras.

- DYLAN LOVAN

SILENCING DOUBTERS, XANDER SCHAUFFELE TAKES CONTROL OF HIS NARRATIVE WITH WIRE-TO-WIRE PGA CHAMPIONSHIP WIN

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 LOUISVILLE -- Narratives change because people never stay the same. That was evident Sunday at Valhalla Golf Club as Xander Schauffele won the 106th playing of the PGA Championship while Bryson DeChambeau, who finished second by a shot, simultaneously won over an entire city with his antics and his play.

It was about this time last week that Schauffele was licking wounds Rory McIlroy inflicted upon him when the latter went out and ran away with the Wells Fargo Championship. But it is Schauffele who had the last laugh -- at least for now -- as he passed McIlroy in the Official World Golf rankings, moving to No. 2 overall after his victory at Valhalla.

It was not a win many predicted. 

Even when Schauffele led after 18, 36 and 54 holes, old stories persisted of him being allergic to major championship leads and cowering from the lights when they at their most luminous. How could they not? 

Schauffele had sat in first or second entering the final round of a major or The Players Championship three times in his career; he lost all three opportunities. Even worse, he had entered such third rounds inside the top three on the leaderboard three times; he lost all three of those opportunities, too.

"I don't think I'd ever look at it as lacking," Schauffele said of past bruisings. "I looked at it as someone that is trying really hard and needs more experience. All those close calls for me, even last week, that sort of feeling, it gets to you at some point.

"It just makes this even sweeter. I know it's a major, but just winning in general, this is as sweet as it gets for me."

Peers and those around Schauffele's circle have insisted that he had what it takes to win the biggest events; still, evidence to the contrary began to pile up. Such criticism is a privilege, of course. It's not like Tom Hoge, Alex Noren nor Thomas Detry get criticized when they come up short. Just the players who are perceived to be otherwise great; the ones we believe are good enough to be champions.

That is how narratives work.

Others have gone through similar struggles early in their careers. Phil Mickelson comes to mind. Though Lefty has won six major championships, he entered his 34-year-old season on the PGA Tour with a cacophony of hot takes that he simply could not win the biggest events. In retrospect, it makes the murmurs around Schauffele, who is only 30, seem more like whispers.

The question with Schauffele at these big events often became, "How will he lose this one?" After a stunning 31 on the front nine Sunday, it seemed like we got our answer when he made bogey at the second-easiest hole on the course, the 590-yard par-5 10th, after a series of poor decisions and possibly even poorer shots.

But narratives change because people do.

Schauffele birdied the next two holes to regain control of the tournament. Five pars later, and he stood on the 72nd hole knowing that, two pairings ahead of him, DeChambeau had delivered the moment of the tournament to that point. Tying Schauffele at 20 under with a birdie at his 72nd hole, DeChambeau responded with what looked like it was going to be a cartwheel that turned into a hammering fist pump.

Changing a narrative is a hell of a way to describe DeChambeau's week, too. The irony of him leaving the PGA Tour to take Saudi Arabian millions only to become the most beloved he has ever been by golf fans is as amusing as it is confusing. 

Yet here we are. 

It is impossible to overstate how pro-Bryson the Louisville crowds were this week. On Sunday, they poured into every crevice of the property and hollered encouragement after each of his shots. Resounding shouts of, "Try to shoot 50 today, Bryson!" and "world's greatest YouTuber!" replaced what used to be jeers when he teed off.

(I did not hear, as Bryson purported at the Masters earlier this year, anyone yelling that they are grateful for what he does online. But the shouts were not far off.)

DeChambeau delivered the Valhalla crowd a show because he is, at his heart, a showman. His narrative has changed because he has changed. He understands now that he has two gifts: He is amazing at golf, and he is a world-class entertainer.

DeChambeau now has an outlet for both -- the former at major championships and the latter on his YouTube channel where he often tries to do crazy things like hit 215 miles-per-hour ball speed or break 50 from forward tees.

"It's actually funny; YouTube has helped me understand that a little bit more," DeChambeau explained about his altered mentality of embracing big moments and delivering joy to fans. "When the moment comes, knowing what to do, what to say, how to act is really important. You know, when I was younger, I didn't understand what it was. Yeah, I would have great celebrations and whatnot, but I didn't know what it meant and what I was doing it necessarily for. Now, I'm doing it a lot more for the fans and for the people around and trying to be a bit of an entertainer that plays good golf every once in a while."

That is how careers go. They ebb and flow. You learn how to play majors and how to celebrate them, too.

Schauffele's tee shot on No. 18 did not get a great result. With his feet in a bunker up the left, he had a hanging lie from which the ball could have flown a number of different directions. Instead, he hit a big, hooking rope that ended up in a perfect spot to get up and down for birdie, the all-time major scoring record and the PGA Championship.

He stepped into a stunning silence given the size of the crowd on Sunday and drove a low, spinning chip right up next to the hole. It was a dagger into the championship itself.

That is how narratives die.

"Definitely a chip on the shoulder there," Schauffele said of the narrative surrounding his play. "It just is what it is at the end of the day. You guys are asking the questions, probing, and I have to sit here and answer it. It's a lot easier to answer it with this thing sitting next to me now, obviously. It's just fuel, fuel to my fire. It always has been growing up, and it certainly was leading up to this."

One day we may look back at Schauffele's career and laugh at anyone ever believing he was unable to close out a big-time tournament. He might win three or four or five of these. That's how good he is.

But there will only ever be one victory that ended the narrative. Schauffele doing it with a 65 when the player ahead of him -- potentially breaking a narrative of his own -- shot 64 makes it even more satisfying and legitimate.

"It's just noise," Schauffele concluded. "That's what I think. I thought I was [good enough to win a major]. Not that people saying it made me think that. I just felt like I've done enough work, I'm good enough to do it. I just needed to shut my mind up and actually do it."

All major winners are champions. That's how majors work. Not all of them flip narratives like Schauffele did Sunday at Valhalla. In 18 holes of golf, he went from "best who can't win the big one" to "actually, maybe he's going to win a lot of them."

That's how drastically this major result shifted the trajectory of Schauffele's career. 

His narrative changed because he did something he's never done before. He closed out the best in the world when it mattered the most. 

It's hard to imagine erasing a narrative any more definitively than that.

- Kyle Porter

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER ARRESTED AT PGA CHAMPIONSHIP FIR TRAFFIC VIOLATION, RETURNS IN TIME TO TEE OFF

 LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Masters champion Scottie Scheffler was arrested Friday morning on his way to the PGA Championship, with stunning images showing him handcuffed as he was taken to jail for not following police orders during a pedestrian fatality investigation.

In a span of four hours, the top-ranked golfer in the world was arrested wearing gym shorts and a tee shirt, dressed in an orange jail shirt for his mug shot, returned to Valhalla Golf Club in golf clothes and made his 10:08 a.m. second-round tee time.

“This morning, I was proceeding as directed by police officers,” he said in a statement released as he was warming up on the range. "It was a very chaotic situation, understandably so considering the tragic accident that had occurred earlier, and there was a big misunderstanding of what I thought I was being asked to do.

“I never intended to disregard any of the instructions,” he said. “I'm hopeful to put this to the side and focus on golf today. Of course, all of us involved in the tournament express our deepest sympathies to the family of the man who passed away in the earlier accident this morning. It truly puts everything in perspective.”

His attorney, Steve Romines in Louisville, also described it as a misunderstanding and told The Associated Press, “We will litigate the case as it goes.”

Traffic was backed up for about a mile in both directions on the only road that leads to Valhalla in the morning darkness with light rain, with dozens of police vehicles flashing red-and-blue lights near the entrance.

Police said a pedestrian had been struck by a bus while crossing the road in a lane that was dedicated to tournament traffic and was pronounced dead at the scene about 5:09 a.m. The PGA of America identified the man as an employee of one of its vendors.

“This is heartbreaking to all of us involved with the PGA Championship. We extend our sincere condolences to their family and loved ones,” the PGA said in a statement.

ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington said Scheffler, the No. 1 player in the world who was to start the second round at 8:48 a.m., drove past a police officer a little after 6 a.m. in his SUV with markings on the door indicating it was a PGA Championship vehicle.

The officer screamed at him to stop and then grabbed onto the car until Scheffler stopped about 10 yards later.

Scheffler was booked at 7:28 a.m. — about 2 1/2 hours before he was scheduled to start his second round. Police said he was booked for second-degree assault of a police officer, third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving and disregarding traffic signals from an officer directing traffic.

“The main thing is he was proceeding exactly as he was directed in a marked vehicle with credentials," Romines said. “He didn’t do anything intentionally wrong.”

Louisville Metro police spokesman Dwight Mitchell did not immediately return a call seeking comment and information.

Darlington watched it unfold. He said police pulled Scheffler out of the car, pushed him up against the car and immediately placed him in handcuffs.

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

Mitchell told Louisville radio station WHAS the man was crossing Shelbyville Road about 5 a.m. and the bus didn't see him. Mitchell said the man was pronounced dead on the scene.

The PGA Championship posted a notice that play would be delayed because of the accident. The second round was to start 1 hour, 20 minutes later than scheduled tee times, meaning Scheffler was not due to start until 10:08 a.m.

Scheffler was released by police and returned to the course at 9:12 a.m. He made his way to the practice area around 9:30 a.m. and was welcomed by fans — one shouted “free Scottie!”

With cars backed up in the morning darkness, other PGA-marked vehicles tried to move slowly toward the entrance. Traffic finally began to move gradually a little before 7 a.m.

It was a surreal start to what already has been a wild week of weather — the Masters champion and top-ranked player in the world, dressed in workout clothes with his hands in cuffs behind his back amid flashing flights.

Darlington said police were not sure who Scheffler was. He said an officer asked him to leave and when he identified himself being with the media, he was told, “There's nothing you can do. He's going to jail.”

Darlington said another police officer later approached with a notepad and asked if he knew the name of the person they put in handcuffs.

Scheffler is coming off four victories in his last five tournaments, including his second Masters title. He was home in Dallas the last three weeks waiting on the birth of his first child, a son that was born May 8.

Scheffler opened with a 4-under 67 and was five shots out of the lead as he tries to become only the fifth player since 1960 to win the first two majors of the year.

___

Associated Press writer Dylan Lovan contributed.

- DOUG FERGUSON