Scottie Scheffler's whirlwind week at the PGA Championship is set for more upheaval as he enters the third round on Saturday.
The World No.1 arrived this week shortly after the birth of his first child, Bennett, but his tournament hopes were thrown into chaos on Friday morning when he was arrested while driving into Valhalla Golf Club in heavy traffic caused by an earlier unrelated accident in which a pedestrian died after being struck by a shuttle bus.
The American later labelled the incident a "big misunderstanding" but was placed in handcuffs and arrested, before being charged with four offences, including “second-degree assault of a police officer".
Despite the incident, Scheffler went on to produce a remarkable five-under-par 66 to keep himself in contention at the halfway stage. However, heading into Saturday's third round, he will have to deal with more disruption as he will be without his regular caddie Ted Scott.
The pair started working together in 2021 but will not be teaming up on Moving Day as Scott attends his daughter's graduation.
“That's something we talked about from the beginning of our relationship was family always comes first, and it's the same thing for me as it is for my caddie. It was a pretty easy decision," Scheffler said prior to the tournament.
“He told me at the beginning of this year that that was the date that it was, so I got a backup caddie lined up. One of my buddies is going to carry the bag on Saturday, and then Ted will be back for Sunday's round.”
Brad Payne (right) spent time with Scheffler and Scott on the range prior to the second round
In Scott's place, Scheffler will instead have Brad Payne, a former college golfer at Pepperdine, on the bag for the day. Payne previously caddied for two-time Tour winner Paul Stankowski and is currently a chaplain for the Tour.
When asked about Payne, Scheffler said: “He's one of my older friends who travels week to week out here. I trust him to rake a bunker more than my buddies.”
Payne was seen alongside Scheffler and Scott during the Masters champion's brief warm-up on Friday but will only serve as caddie for Saturday's round, with Scott set to return in time for the final round.
Scheffler gets his third round underway alongside Thomas Detry and Mark Hubbard at 1.29pm local time.
