LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The PGA Championship of 2024 has finally come to an end. You might've thought it ended with Xander Schauffele draining that putt to win his first major 10 days ago at Valhalla. But you'd be mistaken.

The true conclusion came just after 1 p.m. Wednesday in Louisville's Hall of Justice, when Jefferson County Attorney Mike O'Connell made a motion to dismiss all charges from a May 17 arrest of Scottie Scheffler, the world's No. 1-ranked player, on his way into Valhalla for the second round of the championship.

Open-and-shut case. A slam dunk. No, wait. A tap-in.

The whole matter ends where a lot of us thought it should've ended that morning — with everybody dropping it and getting on about their business. Scheffler will file no countersuit, though his attorney said he would have if charges had been brought during a scheduled June 3 arraignment.

Via social media, Scheffler said, "As I stated previously, this was an unfortunate misunderstanding."

Scheffler has been saying that from the start. He said it in a leaked body cam video of a conversation with an officer in the back of an LMPD cruiser after his arrest and in a lengthy news conference back at the course later that day.

A couple of ESPN commentators, Dave Fleming and Jeff Darlington, said it on the sports network that morning just after the incident.

O'Connell, who has been Jefferson County attorney for 16 years, said it in court Wednesday: "Mr. Scheffler's characterization that this was 'a big misunderstanding' is corroborated by the evidence."

Why Louisville police — or at least those who made the decision to bring Scheffler downtown and press serious criminal charges that morning — didn't see it that way is an explanation they will have to provide.

It's easy to sit at home and watch TV and judge the actions of those actually involved in the heat of the moment, so I try not to get too heavy handed. But I still question why someone involved with the police effort that morning wasn't able to intercede with the question: "Is this really worth all this?" Maybe they did. We don't really know.

Cooler heads prevailing would solve a lot of our problems in the world today and not just when it comes to public safety. One problem, of course, is that the police aren't always dealing with people who have cooler heads themselves.

In Scheffler, however, they were. This guy got the full criminal treatment. Officer hitting his (marked PGA) vehicle with a flashlight. Handcuffed and put in the back of the cruiser. Questioned in the car. Driven downtown, fingerprinted, mug-shot taken, locked in a holding cell. The whole nine yards. He looked at a television in the cell and could see his mug shot flashing across the television.

He was charged with second-degree assault against a police officer, a Class C felony, as well as criminal mischief, reckless driving and disregarding signals from officers directing traffic.

I picture Scheffler there in a "My Cousin Vinny" kind of moment, wondering what the heck had just happened.

The felony charge was right there on TV, too, right next to his name and mug shot.

That same felony charge was amended down Wednesday, before the case was dismissed, to fourth-degree assault, a Class A misdemeanor.

That's not to say that the media should've done anything differently with Scheffler because he is the No. 1 golfer in the world. It is to say that maybe it should handle matters differently when it's a bunch of regular people accused of crimes.

And maybe an incident like this one — and the way it was handled and, eventually, dismissed — might make a lot of people who generally don't think much about these things think a bit differently about them moving forward.

If there's any good that might come of this dust-up, maybe that's it. If the next time you watch the news and see someone in a jump-suit and pause for a second to think, "Maybe that image isn't the whole of this person," it would be a good thing. Sometimes, you know, it might be. But often, it isn't. Often people are arrested for petty things and live with that mug shot image when they're trying to get jobs, when they're trying to rebuild lives.

Nothing much good came of this for the city of Louisville. Once that police car left Valhalla for the police headquarters downtown, this was never going to be a good look for the city or its police department.

As for Scheffler, who kept his cool, remained respectful, went through an hour or so in jail and came out clean on the other side, it's little more than a footnote.

"Scottie Scheffler — you cannot find one person to say a bad word about him," said Steve Romines, Scheffler's attorney. "When he's in a police car after being falsely arrested, he is still a perfect gentleman. ... It is remarkable, the restraint and character he evidenced not only during the incident but after the incident, as he's being taken downtown, and in the press conference that day. We need more Scottie Schefflers in the world."

The Louisville Metro Police Department, in a statement Wednesday, did not mention arresting officer, Detective Bryan Gillis, who was given "corrective action" for not having his body camera turned on during the altercation.

"We respect the County Attorney's decision and we respect the judicial process," the statement says. "LMPD will remain focused on our mission to serve the city of Louisville and mitigate violent crime."

Scheffler, meanwhile, said, "I hold no ill will toward Officer Gillis. I wish to put this incident behind me and move on, and I hope he will do the same. Police officers have a difficult job and I hold them in high regard. This was a severe miscommunication in a chaotic situation."

Scheffler finished with this thought: "I appreciate the support during the past two weeks and want to again encourage everyone to remember the real tragedy of May 17. My thoughts and prayers continue to be with John Mills and his family, and I hope to personally offer my condolences now that the case is over. May John rest in peace."

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