Watching a Jordan Spieth round nowadays is like being on a roller coaster.
For one golf fan during Friday’s second round at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson, watching Spieth also came with a surprise bruise.
As the Texas native teed off on the 16th hole, his tee shot went so far right that he hit a spectator directly on the elbow. Luckily for Spieth, the ball bounced off the fan’s elbow right onto the green.
The spectator was thankfully O.K., even though he is walking away from the tournament with a huge welt near his elbow. Spieth gave him a signed ball and glove to apologize for the injury but also thanking him for help on the shot.
The fan appeared to be in good spirits despite the unfortunate injury.
Spieth ended up bogeying the 16th hole even with the fan’s help to put him on the green. He missed the cut for this week’s tournament after finishing four-under par.
DUBLIN, Ohio â The last time Scottie Scheffler walked off a golf course feeling bad about the way he played was . . . well, he couldnât quite remember on Friday.
When pressed, the worldâs No. 1 player cited the third round of the PGA Championship, the day after his much-discussed arrest due to a traffic issue that continues to garner headlines, though the charges have been dropped.
Scheffler shot 73 that day at Valhalla Golf Club, the first time in 2024 that he failed to shoot par or better. Must be rough.
The second round of the Memorial Tournament was more of the same for Scheffler, who has been on an impressive roll that sees him near the top of leaderboards nearly every time he plays.
Scheffler birdied the 18th hole at Muirfield Village Golf Club to shoot 68, which followed a first-round 67, giving him a three-shot advantage through 36 holes at Jack Nicklausâs tournament.
âI try to forget those days, and so I'm pretty fortunate right now that I can't really remember,ââ Scheffler said when asked about those rare tough days. âThe only one I can really remember was Saturday at the PGA, but that was another caddie, so we'll blame him for that.ââ
But the bottom line is there have been few poor outings for Scheffler all year. Heâs won four times, including the Masters and the Players Championship. He finished second at two recent starts, including the Charles Schwab Challenge two weeks ago. His âworstââ event in the last three months was the tie for eighth at the PGA Championship.
And now heâs leading a $20 million Signature Event.
âI think at this point you're almost expecting him to do those things, so it's almost like I can only do myself and can control what I can control,ââ said Ludvig Aberg, who played with Scheffler the first two rounds and is in sixth place, five shots back. âObviously he's playing very, very good golf and it doesn't look very difficult when he's playing, but all I can do is try to keep up and make sure I'm not too far behind, I guess.ââ
Scheffler is making it look easy, even if he disagrees.
âNo, easy is definitely not the right word,ââ Scheffler said laughing. âI feel like what I love about this game is how difficult it is. I love coming out here and competing against the best players in the world on the best golf courses, and this is obviously a pretty challenging track. I really just love competing out here, and I don't really think about whether or not it's easy or hard, and some days I play good and some days I don't, and outside of that, I'm just out here trying to compete.
âSometimes it feels really good and then sometimes it doesn't feel as good. I don't really know how to describe it other than that. I'm going to try not to really think about it much, to be honest with you.ââ
Scheffler is three shots ahead of first-round leader Adam Hadwin, defending Memorial champion Viktor Hovland and four ahead of Keegan Bradley and Christiaan Bezuidenhout. Rory McIlroy is six shots back in a tie for seventh.
The tournament is one of three Signature Eventsâalong with the Genesis Invitational and the Arnold Palmer Invitationalâthat has a 36-hole cut, which came at 148, 4-over par, with 51 players in the 73-player field advancing.
Among those who missed the cut were Jordan Spieth, defending U.S. Open champion Wyndham Clark, Patrick Cantlay and Rickie Fowler, who shot 82 on Friday.
Scheffler has his fifth 36-hole lead of the year and is atop the field in strokes gained approach to the green and strokes gained tee to green. Heâs trying to become the first player since Justin Thomas in 2017 to win five times in a season.
The Louisville Metro Police Department released a series of photos Friday depicting the aftermath of officer Bryan Gillis's encounter with golfer Scottie Scheffler outside of Valhalla Golf Club on May 17.
The photos featured a picture of Gillis's left knee, which was slightly scraped, a rip in the back of the officer's pants, and a small cut near his wrist.
Gillis also had a wrist injury. he said he didn't need EMS but another office said it was protocol. pic.twitter.com/PWPQCIugi7
On that morning of May 17, Scheffler was commuting to the golf course to prepare for the second round of the 2024 PGA Championship when he attempted to drive around traffic caused by a fatal accident. Cops at the sceneâincluding Gillisâtold Scheffler to pull over and arrested him.
Scheffler was charged with second-degree assault of a police officer, third-degree criminal mischief, reckless driving and disregarding traffic signals from an officer directing traffic. Scheffler said in a statement shortly after the incident that it was all a big misunderstanding, and on May 29, all charges against the golfer were dropped.
The police report filed on the day of the incident alleged that Scheffler refused to comply with an officer's request to stop and continued to drive forward, dragging Gillis to the ground. Gillis was taken to the hospital to treat minor injuries. The report also stated that Gillis's $80 pants were "damaged beyond repair."
After the charges were dropped last month, Gillis filed a statement and finished it off by referencing the pants.
"Yes, the department has us buying freaking $80 pants," Gillis wrote. "To those concerned, they were indeed ruined. But Scottie, itâs all good. I never wouldâve guessed Iâd have the most famous pair of pants in the country for a few weeks because of this. Take care and be safe.â
Scheffler finished tied for eighth place at the PGA Championship. He tied for second place the following weekend at the Charles Schwab Challenge in Fort Worth, Texas.
Brooks Koepka became the first player to win four times as part of the LIV Golf League, shooting a final-round 68 at Sentosa Golf Club in Singapore on Sunday to beat Cam Smith and Marc Leishman by two strokes.
His timing wasnât bad, either.
A few days after offering concern about his game in light of a poor Masters performance, Koepka stepped up and won the LIV Golf Singapore even to give himself a boost heading into the defense of his PGA Championship title in two weeks.
The yearâs second major begins on May 16.
âItâs all starting to come around,â said Koepka, who last year won his fifth major title when he captured the PGA at Oak Hill, becoming the first active LIV golfer to win a major. âI like the way things are trending.ââ
They didnât seem to be trending well just a few days ago when Koepka made clear he was not happy with his tie for 45th at the Masters. âI felt like I wasted all that time from January up until then,ââ he said.
He tied for 10th at the LIV Golf event in Adelaide the week prior and heading into the Singapore tournament that he simply needed to get putts to drop.
âIâve put in a lot of work,ââ he said. âI feel like on the golf course, off the golf course, itâs been a good two weeks, to say the least. Take a week off and then grinding pretty hard with (instructor) Claude (Harmon) over the last few days, I thought that was very important. Kind of started to see it turn maybe Wednesday, Thursday of Adelaide, so to see it pay off here is huge.â
Koepka won his third PGA Championship Wanamaker Trophy last year. In each of his first four major victories, he won back-to-back at the 2017 and â18 U.S. Opens and the 2018 and â19 PGAs.
After a second-round 64, Koepka started the final round with a three-shot lead over Abraham Ancer, Adrian Meronk, Thomas Pieters and Mathew Wolff. He never relinquished his lead, although several challengers closed the gap at times.
âI felt the heat, but it was mainly because of how hot it was,â Koepka said. âJust played very consistent, missed it in the right spots. When you're playing with a lead, you do that. You don't have to force anything.â
Smith and Leishman were part of the winning Ripper GC team, capturing the team title for the second straight week.
