SCHEFFLER KEEPS WINNING, BUT DO SEA SERPENTS AWAIT HIM AT ROYAL TROON?
The world’s premier golfer triumphed over six climate protesters in Connecticut, giving him six wins this year in a superstar journey that has produced zealous police officers and good ones Sunday
In the Firth of Clyde, which borders the Royal Troon Golf Club, fishermen once saw a 30-foot creature with a camel’s head, a giraffe’s neck and long hair. Keith Richards, this was not. The Scottish course hosts The Open Championship next month, and if Scottie Scheffler cares about his well-being, he might seek due diligence about their claims.
He was arrested in Louisville during a traffic incident, after which all charges were dropped. Sunday, six climate protesters sprayed red and white powder on the 18th green and delayed his victory in the Travelers Championship. What’s next overseas?
Scheffler is the best golfer on the planet, winning for the sixth time this season, the most anyone has amassed since Tiger Woods won a half-dozen in 2009. Or, the first before July since Arnold Palmer in 1962. As a family man whose newborn son awaited just a few feet from the mayhem, with mother Meredith, he has no idea what will happen next on his trail of stardom. His playing partner, Akshay Bhatia, was frightened when activist group Extinction Rebellion took over the scene, with one member wearing a shirt with black letters: “NO GOLF ON A DEAD PLANET.” Apparently, the sinister mission blamed climate change for an electrical storm, which injured two people Saturday near TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn.
“I was scared for my life. I didn’t even really know what was happening,” Bhatia said. “But thankfully the cops were there and kept us safe, because that’s, you know, that’s just weird stuff.”
This time, Scheffler credited police officers after they threw him in jail during the PGA Championship. “From my point of view, they got it taken care of pretty dang fast, and so we were very grateful for that,” he said. “When something like that happens, you don’t really know what’s happening, so it can kind of rattle you a little. That can be a stressful situation, and you would hate for the tournament to end on something weird happening because of a situation like that.”
For a moment, Scheffler was spooked again, missing a 26-foot putt that allowed Tom Kim to force a sudden-death playoff with a tying birdie. It was stunning to see residue on the green as they continued to play. Couldn’t employees have used water and dried out the powder? “I felt like Tom and I both tried to calm each other down so we could give it our best shot there on 18,” said Scheffler, as officers tackled the intruders and arrested them. Naturally, he won anyway.
“As much as I love him, I would have loved to take that away from him,” Kim said. “But I’m happy for him. You don’t need to worry about him, because he’s going to play well. Obviously he’s a phenomenal player, world No. 1, all those titles.”
His Louisville driving confusion still makes little sense — he should have paused his vehicle after a fatal accident — and while he didn’t play well at the PGA and the U.S. Open, Scheffler won’t be stopped. He was interviewed by CBS, with his son and wife, after the quirky win. “I would say the afternoons when we get home look a bit different,” he said while holding Bennett. “There’s much less sitting around and watching TV. It’s sitting around trying to figure out what’s going on with our little one.”
He might want to wait to explain Cromwell. That might require a college education. A sea serpent? Maybe Bennett should stay home.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.