Scottie Scheffler evoked memories of the iconic image of last year’s PGA Championship with his outfit of choice at this year’s tournament on Wednesday.
Scheffler, looking to win the third major title of his career at Quail Hollow this week, took to the course in North Carolina wearing a bright orange shirt for his final practice round.
The daring choice inevitably prompted flashbacks of the 28-year-old’s jailhouse mugshot taken 12 months ago when he was arrested outside Valhalla Golf Club in Kentucky.
Scheffler was handcuffed and taken away by cops before his second round and was booked into jail on four criminal charges – including second-degree assault of a police officer.
Amid a traffic pileup outside the club – following a fatal accident earlier that morning – the two-time Masters champion was accused of ignoring police orders to pull over his vehicle and instead speeding away, which allegedly dragged Louisville Detective Bryan Gillis to the ground and left him with both minor cuts and torn pants.
All charges against Scheffler were eventually dropped, with him even considering taking legal action himself after his claim that the incident was simply one big misunderstanding was said to be ‘corroborated by the evidence’.
Scottie Scheffler evoked memories of last year’s PGA Championship with his bold outfit
Scheffler took to the course in North Carolina wearing a bright orange shirt for his final practice
Scheffler looked extremely relaxed as he laughed alongside practice partner Sam Burns
But Scheffler seems to be over the shock incident now and certainly looked like he knew his outfit would cause a stir among the fans who had arrived to watch the world’s best golfers fine tune their preparations.
Scheffler looked extremely relaxed as he laughed alongside practice partner Sam Burns during their round.
Earlier in the day, when cloud covered the course, Scheffler wore a black body warmer over his exuberant shirt.
Scheffler comes into the PGA Championship starting to resemble the No. 1 player in the world he has been for the last two years.
His season started off slowly after he suffered a freak hand injury while making ravioli at Christmas.
However, in his last start he picked up his first win of the year with an emphatic eight-shot victory at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson – the largest margin on the PGA Tour in nearly five years.
‘I’m showing up coming off of a tournament that I won, and that’s always a good feeling,’ Scheffler said on Tuesday.
‘You can definitely ride some of that momentum. When I look back at my career, it would be silly to say that I don’t ride some of the momentum from those wins.’
Scheffler makes up the headline group of the first two days alongside Rory McIlroy and defending champion Xander Schauffele.
