Scottie Scheffler Struggling The Day After Arrest At The PGA Championship

For most of the 2024 golf season, Scottie Scheffler has seemed invincible.

Scheffler's worst finish of the year is in a tie for 17th place, but starting in March, he was almost untouchable. He won the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill, then followed that up with a win at The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass the next weekend. He collapsed all the way into a tie for second place at the Texas Children's Houston Open, before easily winning The Masters. 

As if that wasn't impressive enough, he followed that up by winning yet again the next weekend at the RBC Heritage in South Carolina. 

Entering this weekend's PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Scheffler was a heavy favorite, and deservedly so. And then he got arrested before the second round on Friday afternoon. 

One of the weirder, wilder stories in the sports world over the past few years, Scheffler was booked and charged over what he described as a "misunderstanding" trying to drive his car into the tournament. Despite being pulled out of his usual routine, Scheffler turned in a five under 66 to put him at nine under entering Saturday. And he still managed to praise the police, despite what appeared to be overzealous enforcement.

READ: Despite Arrest, Scottie Scheffler Praises Police And Calls Them 'Our Protectors'

With the wild, chaotic day behind him and just three shots separating Scheffler from tournament leader Xander Schauffle, it seemed like the weekend once again set up for Scheffler to make a run at yet another victory.

Not exactly.

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Scottie Scheffler Has Brutal Start To Third Round

Scheffler started his day with a par on the 484-yard first hole, but the wheels quickly fell off after that. A pulled second shot gave him a brutal lie out of extremely thick rough, and with no other choice, Scheffler chopped it out into the second cut of rough. He still had an opportunity to get up and down for bogey, but bladed the chip well past the green, giving himself a 40-foot putt back. Unsurprisingly, he missed for an early double bogey.

The par-3 third also got him, as he missed a five-footer for par, putting him three over for the day through three holes. Most players have taken advantage of the drivable par-4 fourth, but Scheffler's first wound up well over the green, forcing him to take a penalty drop. A chunked chip shot led to another bogey, and suddenly the world number one went from nine under to five under in less than an hour.

Because he is still Scottie Scheffler though, he did bounce back with a birdie on five and another on seven to pull back to seven under. 

But then on the par-3 eighth, he missed a three footer for par, falling back to six under.

It's hard to blame the arrest for Schffler's poor performance, considering he's likely well past it and shot five under on Friday. Still, it's one of the worst rounds we've seen from Scheffler in a long, long time, and almost certainly eliminates him from contention given the number of low scores on the course and players ahead of him.

At this point it's almost a surprise if Scheffler doesn't win, and he's become even more of a fan favorite after the bizarre arrest. But even for the best in the world, golf can still be hard.