World No.1 golfer Scottie Scheffler arrested outside Valhalla Golf Club before play at PGA Championship

Masters champion Scotty Scheffler has been charged by police after an incident outside Valhalla Golf Club before the second round of the PGA Championship, the second major tournament in golf calendar.

The strange series of events that led to the arrest of the world number 1, just after the entrance to Valhalla, was captured on video by ESPN reporter Jeff Darlington.

WATCH VIDEO ABOVE: Scotty Scheffler Arrested Outside PGA Championship.

Stream every round of the LIV Golf season live and free 7 plus

Scheffler was driving into Valhalla Golf Club amid traffic chaos from a separate incident and believed he was getting around security, Darlington said.

Instead, it was the police who then chased the champion golfer until he retreated another 10 meters before stopping.

Scheffler was in a marked player vehicle.

“Breaking news: World No. 1 golfer Scotty Scheffler has been taken into custody by police in handcuffs after a traffic misunderstanding resulted in him attempting to pass an officer at Valhalla Golf Club,” Darlington said.

“The officer attempted to hitch up to Scheffler’s car and then Scheffler stopped his vehicle at the entrance to Valhalla.

“The officer then began yelling at Scheffler to get out of the car. When Scheffler exited the vehicle, the officer pushed Scheffler into the car and immediately handcuffed him.

“He is now being held in the back of a police car.”

Scheffler was charged with second-degree assault on a police officer along with lesser charges of third-degree misdemeanor reckless driving and failure to obey traffic signals, Jefferson County court records show.

According to Darlington, the officer didn’t seem to know it was Scheffler.

“(Scheffler was) very amazed at what was going on, looked over at me while he was in those handcuffs and said, ‘Please help me,'” Darlington said.

“He obviously didn’t know what was going on in the situation. It was moving very fast, very fast, very aggressive.

“He was held in that police car for about 20 minutes. The police officers at that time did not realize that Scotty Scheffler was the golfer in the tournament, nor, of course, that he was the #1 player in the world.

Darlington recorded two officers handcuffing Scheffler into a police car before the reporter himself was confronted by a third. He was told to back off several times.

“He’s going to jail right now,” Darlington Constable said.

“He’s going to jail and there’s nothing you can do about it. Period. There is nothing you can do about it.

Second round play was postponed due to an incident near the course.

Police said a pedestrian was struck by a bus while crossing the road in a lane designated for tournament traffic and died at the scene. Scheffler was not involved in the incident.

Scheffler, who shot a 4-under 67 on Thursday, was originally scheduled to start at 8.48am ET, but his tee time was pushed back to 10.08am local time (12.08am Saturday AEST).

He was released by police and returned to the pitch at 9.12am. He made his way to the training area and was greeted by fans. Remarkably, the 27-year-old hardly seemed fazed by the morning’s events.

He made a statement about the incident before starting his second round.

“This morning I acted on the instructions of the police officers,” he said.

“It was a very chaotic situation, understandably so, given the tragic incident that happened earlier, and there was a lot of misunderstanding of what I thought I should do.

“I never intended to ignore any of the instructions. Hopefully I can put that aside and focus on golf today.

“Of course, all of us involved in the tournament send our deepest condolences to the family of the man who died in the accident earlier this morning. It really puts everything into perspective.”

– With NBC and CNN