LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — One year ago, Scottie Scheffler sat in a holding cell in Louisville, Ky., watching his mug shot flash across a courtroom TV.
On Sunday, the picture was very different.
This time, he stood on the 18th green at Quail Hollow -- his 1-year-old son Bennett in his arms, the Wanamaker Trophy beside him and CBS cameras rolling. When it came time to hand Bennett off, the boy didn’t want to let go. He clung to his dad a little longer. It was a moment full of color and joy — and a long way from that dark morning outside Valhalla Golf Club a year ago.
Scheffler didn’t say much about that day. He never has. But he was asked — again — whether what happened in Louisville made this PGA title feel any sweeter.
“I definitely have a few jokes that I want to say that I’m probably going to keep to myself,” he said with a grin. “That’s not a good idea.”
He didn’t need to say much else.
“Sometimes,” he added, “it still doesn’t almost feel real. It really doesn’t. … But I can tell you it’s very sweet sitting here with the trophy this year.”
It should be.
This wasn’t an easy win. Scheffler didn’t have his best swing — and revealed after the win that his driver had failed PGA testing mid-week. He gave up a three-shot lead on Sunday’s front nine. And still, on one of the PGA’s toughest courses, in winds that humbled most of the field, against the best players in the world, he settled in and closed like a champion.
A promotional image of Scottie Scheffler put out just after he won the PGA Championship. The headline: "Best Player in the World? Guilty."
“I felt like this was as hard as I battled for a tournament in my career. This was a pretty challenging week,” he said.
He birdied 10. He birdied 14. He saved par from greenside bunkers on 16 and 17. By the time he reached 18, the tournament was his.
The back nine at Quail Hollow isn’t where you settle scores — but Scheffler played it like a man ready to do just that, whether he needed to or not.
Because a year ago, Scheffler wasn’t just the world’s best golfer — he was also a headline. Arrested by Louisville police in the early morning hours before the second round of the PGA Championship at Valhalla, charged with felony assault of a police officer, then taken downtown, fingerprinted, mug-shot, and released in time to shoot a second-round 66.
The charges were later dropped. Louisville’s county attorney called the incident a misunderstanding, and the evidence supported Scheffler’s account. But those images — the mug shot, the cruiser, the confusion — don’t go away. The golfer in an orange jumpsuit was the most popular Halloween costume in Louisville last fall — for adults, anyway.
And Scheffler?
He never lashed out. He never blamed. He went on to win. And win. And win again.
“We need more Scottie Schefflers in the world,” his attorney, Steve Romines, said at the time. He wasn’t wrong.
What’s remarkable is how little has changed. Scheffler still brushes off talk of career goals. Still calls golf a puzzle he enjoys solving. Still walks to the first tee with a workman’s approach and a schoolkid’s joy. He still stores his trophies in what he calls “the golf junk room.” They’re not even displayed all that nicely, he says.
But something about this one felt different. All of the superlatives that come with winning your third major before the age of 29 now suggest that Scheffler is back on the fast track to being, perhaps, the best golfer of his generation.
“You work your whole life to have a chance to win tournaments,” he said. “... Sometimes I wish I didn't care as much as I did. It would be a lot easier if I could show up and be like, eh, win or lose, I'm still going to go home and do whatever. But at the end of the day, this means a lot to me.”
It shows. He has now won on major championship courses built for power hitters and tacticians alike. He has won with a lead and without one. And after all the chaos of a year ago, he has shown what grace under pressure really looks like — not just in the arena, but outside it.
The only nod — subtle or maybe not-so-subtle — came from Nike. It posted a photo of Scheffler with the headline: "Best Player in the World? Guilty." Its social media intro to the photo read, "The verdict is in."
Probably the only mugshot reference Scheffler would've signed off on.
No drama. No grandstanding. Just another shot. Another tournament. Another trophy.
And this time, a boy in his arms who didn’t want to let go.
Hard to blame him.
A year ago, his dad was on a TV screen -- for reasons no one expected.
Sunday, he was right where he belonged.
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