“If you make sure you’re connected,
The writing’s on the wall.
But if your mind’s neglected,
Stumble you might fall.
Stumble you might fall.”
Stereo MCs
It has been a tough coupla weeks for PGA golf and pro golfers.
First, there was the Scottie Scheffler incident at the PGA Championship held at Valhalla Country Club in Kentucky.
The world’s #1-ranked professional golfer pulled up to the front gate of the golf course around 5:20ish a.m. on a rainy Friday morning in his clearly marked courtesy vehicle, to prepare for his early-morning, second round tee time.
Instead of rolling on through, unimpeded, like he’d done every week, suddenly, he was told to stop by an unrecognizable person in a large, yellow raincoat, and that’s when things got dodgy. Scheffler wound up cuffed, stuffed and taken into custody for “allegedly” disobeying a police officer and endangering said lawman by “allegedly” dragging him 10-15 yards with his car, before stopping, ripping the officer’s trousers and scraping his knee.
From the videos that have been released, it looks like the member of the Louisville Metro Police Dept., who claims his order to “STOP!” was ignored, chased after Scheffler’s car, stumbled and then tried to attach himself to it, as it crept up to the front gate. It then appears the officer attempted to grab the golfer’s left arm or struck at it violently, before the shiny, brand-new Acura SUV came to a halt, a mere 10 steps from the country club entrance.
Little did Scheffler know, but earlier, a volunteer had already been hit and killed by a shuttle. So, it was a chaotic situation when he arrived at the golf course on that fateful, stormy Friday morn in Kentucky, to say the least.
As a former PGA Tour caddie, I rode to the course with players many times. After all, they had all those free, high-end autos to drive each week and the best places to park ‘em – always right up front, near the clubhouse. Whereas caddie parking was rarely convenient and more often than not – a royal pain in the arse.
This was during the late 1990s through 2001 – back when caddies were still considered and treated like thieving degenerates. Shoot, we were banned from all of the clubhouses hosting PGA events. We ate our meals at the course in the Caddie Wagon – an RV converted into a food truck that followed the tour around and could seat about 9, comfortably. While the players dined on complimentary, lavish spreads of gourmet food day-in-and-day-out, we paid for and consumed $2 breakfast bagels and $3.50 grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for our on course meals.
Back to the traffic “incident” – since there are so many “official” vehicles issued during a PGA tournament on any given week, they all must have certain, easily visible placards/parking decals to determine which cars are allowed where, because it is a zoo come Saturday and Sunday when 30k+ spectators show up. And no doubt Scheffler’s car had just that, some sort of readily recognized sign that clearly identified it as a tournament participant’s vehicle. There is no reason the LMPD officer should have stopped Scheffler’s ride in front of the gate, then or ever, much less booked him.
Perhaps the most remarkable part of the story is that he did make his tee time, birdied the first hole and went on to shoot a tidy 6 under par, 65. Wow!
And then there’s is the tragic tale of Grayson Murray, a PGA Tour player, who took his life in a Fort Worth hotel room last Friday night at the ripe age of 30 years young.
Just goes to show you – life is a trip, and you never know what someone is going through.
So please be kind and gracious to everyone you encounter, cuz it definitely matters.
WPS!