MONTREAL — Scottie Scheffler’s father was involved in an altercation with a vulgar fan on Saturday on the Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal Golf Club earlier than Scheffler’s caddie — and, shortly thereafter, the police — helped separate the 2.
The incident started earlier than Scheffler hit his method shot on the sixteenth gap throughout Saturday afternoon’s alternate-shot match. As Scheffler and his associate Russell Henley walked in the direction of their drives alongside their opponents, Hideki Matsuyama and Sungjae Im, a fan to the correct of the green, close to hospitality tents, could possibly be heard by a GOLF reporter yelling vulgar remarks at Scheffler and his spouse, Meredith, who was additionally with the group, as was Scheffler’s dad, Scott.
At that time, the elder Scheffler peeled off and stepped throughout a fan rope to confront the person earlier than intervening officers have been assigned to the golfers and Scheffler’s caddie, Ted Scott, who was nonetheless carrying Scheffler’s bag. The Athletic’s Gabby Herzig reported on social media that Scott Scheffler stated the person was escorted from the course. An officer would solely verify to a GOLF.com reporter that an incident had occurred.
Shortly after the altercation, Scheffler hit his method shot, and minutes later he closed out the match with a 2-foot, 8-inch putt for par. His mother and father declined to speak to a GOLF reporter particularly in regards to the incident, and Scheffler was not half of the post-round press convention.
Henley, nonetheless, was, and he was requested whether or not he or Scheffler have been distracted by what had occurred.
“No, not really,” he stated. “Once it happened, we just kind of refocused and got back in it.”
The incident was half of a rollercoaster match that solely grew extra heated because the day progressed. Scheffler and Henley fell 3 down on the entrance 9 and trailed for the primary 11 holes in their match earlier than taking a 1-up lead on the 14th gap. On 15, Im hit his group’s tee shot into the water left of the green, and Scheffler seemed to be debating with Im and Matsuyama about the place the ball could be dropped forward of their third shot. After the dialogue was settled, Scheffler picked up the membership of one of the International gamers and shoved it again into that participant’s bag.
When requested afterward whether or not there was a problem with the drop, Henley stated he didn’t know. At the time, he was getting ready to hit his group’s second shot, after Scheffler’s tee shot.
“I wasn’t over there,” Henley stated. “I think Scottie was kind of handling it, but it looked like they came to an agreement. So I’m not sure.”
After the match completed on the sixteenth inexperienced, Scheffler enthusiastically embraced his American teammates, rapidly shook palms with Im and Matsuyama and then continued to rejoice.
The victory helped give his American facet an 11-7 benefit over the International staff, which is made up of gamers exterior of the U.S. and Europe. Play in the biennial occasion finishes Sunday, when the 12 members of the American staff play the 12 International execs in singles matches.
In the third match of the day, at 12:26 p.m. ET, Scheffler performs Matsuyama. It stands to be one of his remaining skilled rounds of golf of 2024, essentially the most outstanding season of his professional profession. Scheffler has gained eight instances worldwide this 12 months, together with the Masters and Olympic gold, placing collectively one of essentially the most dominant seasons in current PGA Tour historical past. Scheffler additionally made nationwide information when he bought arrested forward of the PGA Championship’s second spherical for a site visitors incident earlier than he was launched from jail simply earlier than his tee time. Those costs have been finally dropped.
