How ESPN’s Jeff Darlington landed at the center of the Scottie Scheffler arrest story
CNN
ESPN journalist Jeff Darlington witnessed the arrest of World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler Friday morning before the second round of the PGA Championship in Louisville, Kentucky, thrusting the reporter into the middle of one of the strangest sports stories in recent memory.
ESPN journalist Jeff Darlington witnessed the arrest of World No. 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler Friday morning before the second round of the PGA Championship in Louisville, Kentucky, thrusting the reporter into the middle of one of the strangest sports stories in recent memory. Darlington and Scheffler had arrived at the course around the same time in preparation for the tournament. After reportedly attempting to drive around the scene of a fatal crash, Scheffler was arrested and charged with a felony and other counts. He was later released and has since teed off in the tournament. Darlington was not only a witness to the incident, he also attempted to intervene. He was only several feet away from Scheffler when the golfer was arrested, and Darlington tried – and failed – to explain to the police that Scheffler was a participant in the tournament. “We didn’t want to be part of this story, we ended up being at least on the periphery,” said ESPN commentator Dave Fleming on air after the incident. ESPN told CNN that the network is not commenting on this story. Darlington broke the news of Scheffler’s arrest in a series of posts on X and explained the incident in greater detail on ESPN’s SportsCenter less than an hour later. He said the incident occurred around 6 a.m. after a “misunderstanding” in which Scheffler tried to circumvent police presence at the scene of an unrelated car accident that occurred outside of golf club.