Scottie Scheffler 'proud' of fighting display in 'hectic' PGA Championship week

World No 1 thanks fans, players and caddies for show of support following his arrest on Friday

World No 1 Scottie Scheffler ended his dramatic week in the 106th PGA Championship by resuming normal service, saying he’d been “proud today of how I fought” in the closing circuit at Valhalla.

After being arrested on Friday morning but still managing to keep himself in the mix in the season’s second major by carding a 66, the American saw his hopes of winning in Louisville dashed by a third-round 73 on Saturday.

That two-over score ended Scheffler’s impressive run of 42 consecutive rounds of par or better, but he’s off and running again in red numbers after closing with a 65 in Kentucky for a 13-under aggregate, finishing joint-eighth behind Xander Schauffele.

Scottie Schefflerfollows his shot on the 12th tee during the final round of the 106th PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky. Picture: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images.

Asked to try and put his week into words, the Masters champion laughed before replying: “Yeah, I'm not really quite sure. I think ‘hectic’ would probably be a good description. Overall right now how I'm feeling, I'm fairly tired, definitely a lot more tired than I have been finishing some other tournaments.

“But I'm proud of today how we went out there and fought. I got off to kind of a slow start and I was able to kind of get some momentum and post a good round and give myself some good momentum. Yesterday obviously was quite frustrating and a bit of a different day, but overall proud of how I fought this week. Was fortunate to be out here competing, doing what I love.”

Scheffler was heading straight home to Texas to see his wife Meredith and their now son, Bennett. He’s unsure about whether he needs to make a personal appearance in court back in Louisville on Tuesday and is still intending to play in next week’s Charles Schwab Challenge.

“Out on the golf course the support this week that I got from the fans was tremendous,” he added. “The support I got from the players and caddies and everybody inside the ropes was tremendous. So I'm very grateful to have the community that we have out here on the road and to have their support.”

Brooks Koepka, the defending champion and a three-time Wanamaker Trophy winner, signed off with a six-birdie 66 for a nine-under-par total but, after leaving himself too far behind after a third-round 74, he was disappointed with his week. “Not very good,” he said in reply to being asked for an assessment. “I think it's pretty obvious, isn't it?”

The American was bitterly disappointed after finishing outside the top 40 in The Masters and felt similar about this effort. “I don't think finishing 30th is progress,” he added. “Played good today, played good the other two days. Yesterday just didn't have anything. I don't think I did one thing good at all. Usually when you play bad, you've got one thing that you do okay and you might putt bad or you might drive it bad. Yesterday was just a combination of everything.”

The US Open at Pinehurst is next up on this year’s major schedule in four weeks’ time before the 142nd Open takes place at Royal Troon. “I feel like I'm playing good,” insisted Koepka, a recent winner in a LIV Golf event in Singapore. “I missed a bunch of putts on Friday from inside like five feet and then yesterday's round was unfortunate. But, other than that, I think I'm pretty close to right there.”

Alex Noren, the 2016 Genesis Scottish Open champion, catapulted himself up the leaderboard with a closing 65 to finish three shots ahead of Koepka on 12 under. “Yeah, it was nice,” said the Swede of his day’s work. “I played a really good round yesterday but didn't putt very well. Then I changed back to my other putter, a very similar, and then a little bit different approach to the putting and it felt better from the start.”

A member of Europe’s triumphant team in the 2018 Ryder Cup in France, Noren added: “I’ve never probably played this good on a weekend before, so I'm very, very pleased and I'm going to take that with me and then try to get the putter sorted for four straight rounds.”