Scottie Scheffler moves on from arrest and leaves Valhalla with head held high
Scheffler was the pre-tournament favourite when he got to Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, fresh off celebrating the birth of his first child and chasing back-to-back major titles and a fifth win in six starts.
World number one Scheffler, whose par-or-better streak ended at 42 rounds on Saturday, capped the year's second major with a closing six-under-par 65 that left him at 13 under on the week.
"I'd say that I've gotten better throughout my career of leaving the off-course distractions at home and kind of keeping a pretty quiet personal life, and this week obviously that was not the case," said Scheffler.
"I'm not going to sit here and say that I played poorly yesterday because of what happened on Friday. I just had a bad day out on the course and was proud of how I came out here and bounced back today."
That Scheffler even managed to get into contention at one of golf's blue-riband events over the last three days is incredible when considering what transpired before Friday's second round.
The reigning Masters champion sat five shots off the lead after the first round before the golf world awoke to news that Scheffler was arrested in the early-morning hours after what he said was a misunderstanding with traffic flow.
During the ensuing four-hour stretch, Scheffler was put in the back of a police car, had a mugshot taken wearing orange jail garb, was booked on four charges and put in a cell where he spent time stretching ahead of his tee time.
Scheffler managed to get to Valhalla less than an hour before his tee time and moved into contention before falling into a tie for 24th after Saturday's third round.
"Did I feel like myself? Absolutely not. Was my warm-up the way it usually is and the distractions where they normally are? Absolutely not," said Scheffler. "But I'm not going to sit here and say that's why I went out and played a bad round of golf yesterday."
When asked to describe his week, Scheffler said "hectic" would be a good description. The two-time Masters champion also said the week at Valhalla left him more tired than he usually is after other tournaments.
"I put my head down on the scorer's table and I think I about fell asleep, so I'm just kind of wondering what time bedtime is," said Scheffler.
"I'm trying to figure out how quickly I can get home from here and, yeah, that's pretty much it. I think I'm just fairly tired and ready to get home."
