Scottie Scheffler: Devout Christian and new father who was once allergic to controversy

Every time Scottie Scheffler has driven through the gates of a golf club recently, the bookmakers have marked him up at prohibitive prices. However, huge odds would have been offered on the humble, modest world No 1 being the player in this 156-man field who was arrested, handcuffed and then charged for assaulting a police officer.

The bizarre events of this Friday morning went against everything that is known about the 27-year-old. Goodness knows what people meant when during the unprecedented chaos they declared “but he’s a Christian”, a faith which inspired one American journalist to tweet, “he’s an angel of a bloke”’.

However, regardless of his belief structure, Scheffler is considered to be unfailingly polite and during these LIV Civil War times – during which professional male golfers have been depicted as shamelessly entitled – the Texan without the big hat is seen as the antidote to this excess of self-worth.

He has the trophies – four already this year, including the Masters – but minus the ego. “Scottie is genuinely a decent man,” Phil Kenyon, Scheffler’s English putting coach, told Telegraph Sport last week. “There is no ‘the big I am’ whatsoever.”

Does that widely shared opinion now require revision? After all, the last two major-winners to be the subject of the obligatory and humiliating police mug shot, were Tiger Woods and John Daly and neither of those, to varying degrees, would be held up as upstanding pillars of the community.

Of course, Woods faced the custodial lens in 2017 when he was found slumped over his steering wheel near his home in Florida. He was arrested for driving under the influence, but later accepted a deal in which he pleaded guilty to reckless driving. He was placed on probation.

A decade previously, Woods’s friend Daly spent the night in a cell to sober up after being discovered unconscious on pavement outside a Hooters restaurant in North Carolina. He was released in the morning on an unsecured bond.

With respect to the seriousness of both those offences, the allegations against Scheffler are rather more weighty and that is what makes this affair yet more surreal. Second-degree assault of a police officer is a felony not a misdemeanour.

Detective Gillis was taken to hospital, the police report said, after “the subject refused to comply and accelerated forward, dragging Detective Gillis to the ground. Detective Gillis suffered pain, swelling, and abrasions to his left wrist and knee”.

Scheffler is also accused of damaging “beyond repair” the detective’s trousers, valued at $80.

Scheffler has racked up more than £15 million in on-course earnings so far this year and because of this, many labelled this clothing bill as comical. Of course, it is anything but. As he, himself, understands. Scheffler’s statement – which was published on his social media accounts as he prepared on the range before his second round – was, at the very least, measured.

He did call it “a big misunderstanding” and claimed he was “proceeding [into the course] as directed by the police officers” but the majority of his angst was seemingly focused – entirely, rightly – on the tournament worker who was knocked over and killed by a shuttle bus at 5am. That tragedy, Scheffler, said  “truly puts everything in perspective”.

This is a familiar refrain by Scheffler, who steadfastly refuses to become too wrapped up in the supposed importance of his chosen profession. He insisted on his way to a second Masters triumph last month that, no matter where he was on the course or the leaderboard, he would immediately depart if his wife Meredith went into labour (the couple welcomed their first child last week).

And this week he has told his caddie, Teddy Scott, to take off this Saturday to attend his daughter’s graduation ceremony. Instead, Scheffler will have Brad Payne on his bag for the scheduled third round. Payne is the PGA Tour’s chaplain.

“Something that Teddy and I talked about from the beginning of our relationship was that family always comes first,” Scheffler explained.

Scheffler’s upbringing was unusual in the sense that his mother, Diane, was the main breadwinner as an executive in a law firm, while Scott Snr was the stay-at-home father. In the 1990s, this family set-up was not nearly as normal as now and with three daughters, the Scheffler household was, as the father put it, “very lively”.

“But when something happens, Scottie’s always been the one who says, ‘Everybody calm down’.” Scott Snr said in a recent interview. “He’s just kind of calm. Maybe because growing up with four kids... there’s always chaos.”

When he was being led away cuffed just after 6am, panic was written all over his face as he asked a nearby TV reporter to “please help me”. Confused and very likely aghast, this was a situation like nothing that Scheffler had ever experienced before.

A little over three hours later he returned through the same gates to resume the 106th US PGA Championship and, as he does, he birdied his first hole (the 10th). By then, he had been given a hero’s reception by the fans.

Because of the morning’s events, this was an unsettling scenario in many ways, but there was also irony in the cheers. Naturally, the galleries have always liked him and admired him, but there sounded to be actual love and affection in these roars. In incredibly simplistic terms, Scottie Scheffler is boring no more.